Nathan Douglas produced a superb performance in the men's triple jump heats in Athens, but agonisingly missed out on qualifying for the final by just one place.

Nathan DouglasThe Oxford City athlete got off to a flier on his first appearance at the Olympics by leaping 16.84m in his opening qualifying competition jump.

That was just 11 centimetres outside the personal best that he set in qualifying for the Games.

Douglas followed that up with two no-jumps and was left with a tantalising wait to see whether he would be in the top 12 who make it through to Monday's final.

But the 21-year-old saw Russia's Viktor Gushchinskiy and American Kenta Bell both pass his mark with their third jumps, leaving Douglas just seven centimetres short of the mark set by 12th-placed Julien Kapek, of France, meaning he had missed out by the slenderest of margins.

Fellow Briton Phillips Idowu did make it though in the 29 degree heat.

The Belgrave Harrier qualified with a superb first jump of 17.33m, comfortably above the automatic qualifying distance of 17.00m.

And afterwards Idowu, who finished sixth in Sydney four years ago, insisted he was out to follow in the footsteps of Jonathan Edwards, the reigning Olympic gold medallist, who is now retired and working for television.

Douglas was delighted that he didn't freeze on his big day, and did himself justice.

"I didn't know what to expect because this was my first Olympics and my first major championships. I've just done my thing.

"Jonathan Edwards said he started like this, by missing out in qualification, so hopefully I can learn from the experience."

In the end, the unlucky Douglas came 13th out of the 48 triple jumpers taking part.

Men's triple jump - Qualification Group 1. Qualifiers: 1 C Olsson (Swe) 17.68, 2 P Idowu (Gbr) 17.33, 3 D Burkenya (Rus) 17.08, 4 H Meteloglou (Gre) 17.06, 5 Y Quesada (Cub) 17.01, 6 W Davis (USA) 16.94, 7 J Kapek (Fra) 16.91. Non-qualifiers: 8 A Murphy (Aus) 16.82, 9 I Aboubaker (Qat) 16.71, 10 A Owusu (Gha)16.64, 11 M Savolanen (Ukr) 16.56, 12 I Rusenov (Bul) 16.39, 13 P Tolgyesi (Hun) 16.36, 14 L Sands (Bah) 16.35, 15 R Lewis (Grn) 16.33, 16 A Glavatsky (Blr) 16.18, 17 S Juan (Tri) 16.16, 18 O Sanou (Bur) 15.67, 19 A Martirosyan (Arm) 15.05, C Friedek (Ger), V Moskalenko (Rus), B Tuna (Tur), R Valiyev (Kaz), S Bochkov (Axe) all registered no mark.

Qualification Group 2. Qualifiers: 1 Y Betanzos (Cub) 17.53m (pb), 2 M Oprea (Rom) 17.44, 3 J Gregorio (Bra) 17.20, 4 V Guschinskiy (Rus) 17.17, 5 K Bell 16.98. Non-qualifiers: 6 N Douglas (Gbr) 16.84, 7 Y Li (Chn) 16.74, 8 D Giralt (Cub) 16.70, 9 M Lister (USA) 16.64, 10 F Donato (Ita) 16.45, 11 M Karailiev (Bgr) 16.45, 12 V Yastrebov 16.43, 13 M Hazzory (Syr) 16.37, 16 G Mokoena (Rsa) 16.32, 17 V Letnicov (Mol) 16.25, 18 L Leis (Est) 16.18, 19 S Al-Ahmadi (Sau) 16.16, 20 B Simunic (Slv) 16.07, 21 T Sugibayashi (Jpn) 16.00, 22 H-J Park (Kor) 15.84, 23 N Evora (Por) 15.72, 24 K Taillepierre (Fra) 15.50. WALLINGFORD Rowing Club's Helen Casey will not be bringing back an Olympic medal.

Casey and Tracy Langlands finished fifth in their semi-final in the women's lightweight double sculls and missed out on qualification for the final.