THE recurrence of an Achilles problem at the worst possible time looks like it may have scuppered Sarah Claxton’s Olympic hopes.

The Colchester athlete’s dreams of featuring in her third consecutive Games took a blow as she missed out on a top two finish in the 100 metre hurdles at the Aviva Trials and UK Championships in Birmingham.

Claxton said she had been running times well below her personal best of 12.81s in training, but was unable to replicate that form when she really needed to.

Having run 13.24 seconds in the heats, she ran 13.27s to finish behind Jessica Ennis and Tiffany Porter in the final.

She was certain she would have won if she hadn’t been hampered by a niggling Achilles injury, which has dogged her this year, but she thought she had overcome.

The 32-year-old said: “It just didn’t go how I wanted it to and how I had planned, which is very disappointing. I don’t want to talk about excuses, but my Achilles went in the race.

“It had felt good in training, but was sore after the heats so I got a massage on it to loosen it and calm it down and I thought that had helped.

“However, it was sore again in the race.

“I got out of the blocks really well, but I could feel it halfway through the race.

“It’s on my trailing leg so affected me going over the hurdles and trying to sprint in between as the power just wasn’t there.

“What’s so disappointing is that I really know I would have won that race without that.

“I’m absolutely certain of it.”

Claxton needed to finish in the top two at the trials to earn selection for the Games and to have set the 12.96s A standard qualifying time, so, with a season’s best of 13.16s, her Olympic hopes are looking uncertain.

She has another chance to get that time at a race on Saturday to try to persuade selectors that she can repeat her heroics at the 2008 Games, where she finished eighth in the final.