SHOT-PUTTER Scott Lincoln successfully defended his British title at the World Championship trials in Birmingham.

However, Lincoln, who represents the City of York Athletic Club, still fell short of the standard needed to qualify for next month's World Championship at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Lincoln led the nine-man field from the start but his winning throw of 17.82metres was 2.38m short of the 20.20m qualifying target.

He finished 0.47m ahead of his nearest rival. Gloucester's Gareth Winter, with Youcef Zatat of Woodford Green in third place with a throw of 6.68m.

Lincoln admitted: "It was nice to win but I was not really happy with my performance. I am always wanting to throw further. Training is going well but I need to piece it together in competitions now.

"It's just a few technical issues that we are trying to sort out," he added. "At least I did enough to take the win, which was the main aim, but time is ticking. Hopefully, we can put the little things right that will make all the difference."

Lincoln's coach Paul Wilson, meanwhile, was unhappy at the level of support at the Alexander Stadium and blamed ticket-prices rather than the absence of so-called 'star athletes' for the problem.

Wilson estimates that only 1,000 seats were filled at the 12,000-capacity venue and said: "It is unfair on the athletes. If they marketed these events better, they would be sell-outs."

Lincoln now has four more competitions lined-up in which to achieve the World Championship qualifying standard, starting at the Letterkenny International in Belfast on Friday.