Athletics: Heartbreak for Barrett

Disaster struck the New Zealand team at the world athletics championships in Paris last night when Craig Barrett was disqualified from the men's 50km walk.

No stranger to heartbreak at the elite level, Barrett was ruled to have used an incorrect technique three times inside the opening 6km.

He was shown a red flag by on-course judges at the 5.5km mark after two previous warnings, forcing him to pull out.

Barrett was expected to perform well, having recorded the 11th fastest time this year in a world-class field.

New Zealand manager Tony Rogers said Barrett was "utterly dejected", saying his technique had rarely been a problem.

Barrett's last race disqualification was at a World Cup event in the Czech Republic six years ago.

"We can't quite fathom what has happened here, I'm afraid it's just a case of judges giving their subjective ruling and there's nothing we can do," Rogers said.

Barrett was well placed at the time of disqualification, in a group of eight just a small gap behind the leading group of seven.

The silver medallist at last year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Barrett is best known by many for his dramatic collapse with dehydration within sight of a gold medal at the Kuala Lumpur Games four years earlier.

Yesterday's race was an ideal opportunity to qualify for next year's Olympic Games in Athens.