CHRISTIAN Malcolm's coach Jock Anderson admits his young starlet 'let himself down' with his disappointing performances at this year's World Champion-ships in Paris.

Malcolm was one of the pre-championship favourites for the 200m and after the departure of Kostas Kenteris through injury his chances of picking up a medal looked even greater.

But Malcolm failed even to make the final after finishing fifth in his semi-final and Anderson knows he let himself down.

"We were both disappointed but Christian was extremely upset with how he ran," admitted Anderson.

"He was nervous before he ran and the nerves seemed to get to him but even so he should have run better.

"He started off poorly in the first round and from then on he was always playing catch-up and to draw lane one for the semi-final was going to be an impossible task.

"I don't think anyone qualified from lanes one or eight and that tells it's own story, but Christian shouldn't have put himself in that position.

"I thought he was a certainty for a medal, he was running so well and really was in the form of his life.

"I just can't put my finger on what happened out in Paris he's definitely got the bottle for the big time. He just let himself down and let the nerves get the better of him, but he'll be back."

Anderson is also taking a bit of blame for Malcolm's miserable performance.

"I think we got there too early," he said.

"We went on the Wednesday before it had started but perhaps it would have been better to arrive on the following Monday.

"It's not easy being cooped up in that atmosphere for so long and maybe that's a reason why he got so nervous."

However, it wasn't a totally wasted trip for Malcolm with the Newport 200m star picking up a silver medal in the 4x100m relay.

"He's pleased with that obviously but it's not the one he wanted," said Anderson.

"If he'd run in the 200m like he did in the relay then it would have been a different story, but he didn't and we just have to move on."

Meanwhile Anderson flew out to Cyprus last night to run the rule over the training/holiday camp which will be home to Great Britain's athletes before the Olympics in Athens next year.