After the thrills and spills of Olympic year, 2001 was always going to suffer by comparison.

We had the World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, and there were performances to stay in the memory - but this was no vintage year.

From a parochial point of view, Britain had a stinker. Ignore the fiasco of Picketts Lock for a moment.

The nation came back from the Worlds with just two medals, Jonathan Edwards’ triple jump gold and Dean Macey’s brave bronze in the decathlon. Statistically, it was Britain’s worst haul from a major championships in 25 years.

Yes, there were injuries and bad luck tales. But there was also a sense of crisis throughout the sport in the UK.

Fewer and fewer kids were coming into the sport, big clubs were forced to advertise for members and facilities were, in some cases, embarrassing.

Which is where the one good thing about the dismal failure of Britain’s bid for the 2005 Worlds comes in.

Athletics will receive a £40m sweetener to invest at grass-roots level and attempt to revitalise the sport.

On a global scale, the hangover from the Sydney Olympics was less visible. We saw wondrous performances from Stacy Dragila – who broke her own pole vault world record almost whenever she wanted – and Maurice Greene, who was only denied a new 100m mark by a leg injury in the last few strides.

Marion Jones was beaten over 100m, and the great Haile Gebrselassie defeated for the first time in eight years, by Kenyan Charles Kamathi.

Sadly, much of the good stuff was overshadowed by further doping scandals.

Olga Yegorova tested positive for EPO but escaped on a technicality and went on to win the world 500m title to a cacophony of boos from the stands, while innocent and guilty athletes alike were banned for nandrolone abuse.