CHIPPENHAM sprinter Elaine O’Neill missed out on a place in the Great Britain 4x100 metre relay team, and missed an ear-bashing from the coach.

The team flopped in qualifying in Barcelona on Saturday after a series if disastrous batton handovers and was criticised by Great Britain’s head coach Charles Van Commenee.

But O’Neill, 20, is only disappointed that she wasn’t selected for the team in the first place.

“That’s what I wanted and I can’t say too much about it, except that the coaches know what they are doing and what they wanted,” said O’Neill.

“I was obviously disappointed as I felt my performances during the summer were good and while the training camp in Portugal may not have gone as smoothly as it could have done I still felt good.

“But it was still a great experience for me mixing with the senior athletes and then going to Barcelona and I loved every minute of it.”

She added: “The last few weeks have made me want to work even harder and keep going.

“I want to keep making teams for the major championships every year and hopefully the next one will be the Commonwealth Games in October.”

O’Neill has qualified to represent Wales and while the team isn’t announced until next week it will be a major shock if she is not in the small squad going to New Delhi.

“It only hit me yesterday when I got home to Chippenham that the Commonwealth Games are just eight weeks or so away – if I’m selected,” added O’Neill.

With that in mind O’Neill needs to find some races as she hasn’t raced for over a month due to being at the GB holding camp.

“I’m racing in Belgium this weekend and then looking at some meetings in Italy at the end of the month,” added O’Neill.

“It seems a long time since I raced.”