Electronic Telegraph Wednesday 27 September 2000 Tom Knight THE great debate raging within British athletics before the team left for Sydney centred on the fading prospects of the men's 400 metres relay squad. With Mark Richardson facing a doping inquiry and Iwan Thomas fighting a losing battle for fitness, no one had even considered the women's quartet. But the performances of Katharine Merry and Donna Fraser in finishing behind Australia's Cathy Freeman in Monday night's epic 400m changed all that. Merry, who won the bronze, and Fraser, who finished a close fourth, both clocked times inside 50 seconds and will form the backbone of the strongest relay team Britain have ever sent out at a major championship. Natasha Danvers, who has impressed in the 400 m hurdles and Allison Curbishley look like making up the foursome. Fraser said: "Forget the men, look at us for a change. As a team, we're really confident and anything is possible. "Allison is still down after going out of the 400 metres in the second round, but Katharine and I lifted her on Monday night. Definitely, we can win a medal." The poor form of the Americans and Russians in the individual event - where neither nation had a finalist - suggest it could be a very good medal. The women's 4 x 400 m relay was added to the Olympic schedule in 1972 and Britain have only ever won two bronze medals. On both occasions the team contained at least one athlete who had done well in her individual event. In 1980 it was Linsey Macdonald, 16, who inspired her team-mates, Michelle Probert, Joselyn Hoyte-Smith and Donna Murray, to snatch third place in Moscow. At the 1992 Games in Barcelona the team of Phylis Smith, Sandra Douglas and Jenni Stoute was anchored by Sally Gunnell, who had earlier won the 400 m hurdles title. Meanwhile, Fraser, 27, spent yesterday reflecting on her breakthrough in Stadium Australia. Fraser, who has suffered injury or illness problems virtually every year since 1994, still works part-time for her local electricity board and her previous claim to fame was as a body double for France's three-time Olympic champion, Marie Jose Perec, in a series of Pirelli tyre television commercials. Fraser spent part of this summer training alongside Freeman at the Thames Valley Athletics Centre at Eton, where the Australian based herself for the European grand prix circuit. The pair became close friends and Fraser was the first to comfort Freeman after their race on Monday. "Cathy helped give me self-belief. She made me realise I could do it," said Fraser. Eamonn Condon WWW.RunnersGoal.com
