Idowu falls short of his dream

The realisation of his first defeat since the World Championship hit him hard; he threw the headband which covers his distinctive red barnet to the floor and looked up to see his coach Aston Moore in the stands. Darren Campbell, an old British team-mate who knows what it is like to have an individual gold medal snatched away, tried to comfort him, putting an arm around him.

A Union flag was draped over his shoulders but Idowu looked as if he wished it could be anywhere else.

"I feel this is my destiny," Idowu said before the event, while talking about being in the sort of shape to attack the world record. But the holder of that mark, Jonathan Edwards, the man under whose shadow he has always had to live, warned some time ago that Idowu should be thinking more of simply winning the competition rather than thinking of landmarks.

Indeed, Edwards, the last British winner of this event in 2000, identified Evora's speed through the jump and big meeting temperament as the biggest threat to the Briton.

Idowu was supposed to have his number, though. In the form of his life, he had blown the Ivory Coast-born Evora away during the world indoor championships in Valencia in March.

A rain-sodden night at the Bird's Nest had done its worst by the time the distinctive figure took the big stage and though he has been criticised in the past for being maddeningly inconsistent and perhaps wanting a little in mental fortitude on the biggest occasion, there was no evidence of stage fright.

Idowu's first leap appeared a dominant statement of intent as he stretched out, without seeming to be over-extending himself, to 17.51m, a good 20 centimetres more than anyone else could summon in the first round.

Yet Evora, in the second round, hit the board with perfect precision to snatch the lead by five centimetres.

Idowu has not been in this uncomfortable position of trailing many times this season but the sign that he has become an athlete to be reckoned with showed up again in the third round, when he added three centimetres to the lead with a leap of 17.62m. As soon as he landed, he gave a little hop of delight and punched the air, confident it could be decisive.

It is at this point in a competition when it would have been easy to convince himself that Evora might find it hard to recover a second time as the field was reduced to eight with just three jumps left and, inwardly, it must have been a crushing blow, just before he was about to jump again to see Evora leap out to 17.67m.

Of course, he still had the ability to better it because he had cleared more than 17.75m in the indoor season but now his form was becoming increasingly ragged as he tried to respond.

Idowu's fourth effort would have bettered Evora's mark but it was a clear no-jump and his penultimate jump saw him fall 41 centimetres short.

It was all slipping away. The man whose body is pierced by more metal than you would find in a car showroom will now take back home to Hackney a lump more - but what a shame it won't be the precious stuff he had so coveted.