Phillips Idowu to face 'day of reckoning' over preparation

British triple jumper Phillips Idowu will face "a day of reckoning" over his chaotic preparations for the London Olympics, according to world record holder Jonathan Edwards.

Idowu - who won a silver medal in Beijing four years ago - failed to qualify for Thursday's final after only finishing 14th in qualification.

Edwards told BBC Sport: "There will be a day of reckoning for what has happened over the last few months. There will now have to be an inquest into his preparations."

The 33-year-old chose to miss a pre-Olympics squad camp in Portugal to remain in London for treatment for a leg injury, and he has long had a hostile relationship with athletics chief Charles van Commenee.

"It's easy to criticise from a distance but you have to look at what went on and how he handled himself," Edwards said.

"There was clearly a breakdown in communication between himself and UK Athletics, who are there to get the best out of him."

Idowu was outside the 12 qualification spots going into his final jump and could not improve on that standing with his effort of 16.53m.

He had jumped 17.31m as recently as May, a distance which would have seen him qualify on top of the standings, but had not jumped since 1 June.

He pulled out of meetings in Oslo, Paris and London, as well as the Olympic trials in Birmingham, after struggling with a leg injury.

Edwards said: "I am surprised, I thought he would do better. I know how much he wanted this.

"Clearly he's had more of an injury problem then we knew about.

"But out there, he looked OK and in the end what caught him out was the fact that he just hasn't jumped. He just looked rusty.

"He didn't have to jump very far to make the final but he hasn't jumped for two months and there was no rhythm at all. On that final jump he totally mistimed his final phase.

"He said he was pain free but he has been caught out by a lack of preparation."

Idowu revealed after the event that he intends to carry on competing and Edwards - who won Olympic gold in Sydney in 2000 and still holds the world record of 18.29m - believes he could still win medals.

Edwards said: "He'll be 37 at the next Olympics, I retired at 37 so it's not impossible to carry on that long.

"I would think at the very least he will continue through to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

"He can still challenge for medals. If he was fit here he would have jumped 17.70m and that will be good enough for a medal."