May salutes Brits but rewards Italy

Fiona May, the one who got away, once again showed British athletics what it missed when she took her dazzling long jump talent to Italy as she leapt to her second world title today.

But the 31-year-old, who was born in Slough, raised in Derby and once won a world junior title here in Canada in a British vest, had not forgotten her roots as she thanked the contingent of fans from the UK for cheering her to the narrowest of victories.

May, who moved to Florence, marrying an Italian pole vaulter and switching allegiance to Italy seven years ago, produced a leap of 7.02m to regain the title she won in Gothenburg six years ago by just one centimetre from Russian Tatyana Kotova.

Afterwards, May, who always complained that she was never giving enough support by the British athletics system and has since been consistently among the world's best in Italian blue, took the microphone in the stadium and said: "I would like to say thanks to all the British fans for cheering me on. I haven't forgotten about them."

It was 13 years ago that May won gold for Britain as a teenager in Sudbury, Canada, and met her husband Gianni Iapichino.

May was particularly satisfied to finish 14cm clear of Spain's Cuban-born bronze medallist Niurka Montalvo. At the last championships in Seville, she complained after taking silver that Montalvo's winning leap should have been ruled a foul.