Great Britain will not have a women's 4x100m relay team at the Olympic Games in London later this year.
Having entered into this weekend's European Championships in Helsinki ranked 15th in the world, the team were expected to confirm their participation at the Games.
However, the quartet of Anyika Onuora, Montell Douglas, Hayley Jones and Ashleigh Nelson were disqualified earlier today for a lane infringement, which allowed both Poland and Switzerland to leapfrog Britain in the standings.
Current Olympic rules state that only the top 16 nations are granted Olympic places for the event, which means that the British females missed out by one place.
Having learned of the team's omission, UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee admitted that he was not surprised.
"It was always an accident waiting to happen that didn't happen here necessarily, it is a process over a number of years," said Van Commenee.
"We have been underperforming in this area for more than 10 years and at one point you don't get away with it.
"I'm not really surprised, that's why I stopped the programme basically two years ago. I decided after Barcelona not to support the female relay athletes financially any longer because I didn't think they were going to be dangerous in London."
Britain's men have already secured their place in London.
Liam Apicella
