Perri Shakes-Drayton admitted Great Britain s 4x400m relay squad were caught cold after returning empty-handed from the World Indoor Championships in Doha

Perri Shakes-Drayton admitted Great Britain's 4x400m relay squad were caught cold after returning empty-handed from the World Indoor Championships in Doha.

The 22-year-old Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets athlete joined forces with Vicki Barr, Kim Wall and Lee McConnell to clock three minutes 30.29 seconds and finish fifth at the Aspire Dome in Qatar.

The USA led from gun to tape, producing a world leading time of 3.27.34 to take gold with Russia second.

But with none of the six-strong Great Britain squad competing individually in the Middle East, the east London athlete insisted the squad were facing an uphill struggle from the start.

"It would have been a really big help to run in a heat before the final, but unfortunately we didn't have one," said Shakes-Drayton, who made her senior international bow at last year's World Championships in Berlin.

"It was the first time we had run together as a team and we just didn't know who was best in which position or any of that.

"With none of us running individually either we were sitting around all weekend waiting for this one race right at the end and it is hard just to turn it on.

"I think the coaches did everything they possibly could to prepare us and we all knew which jobs we had to do but ultimately we just couldn't do enough for a medal."

Despite ending the race outside of the medals, Shakes-Drayton believes there was no disgrace for the team to bow to the superior firepower of the USA, Russia and Jamaica.

"We were up against some very established and very talented relay teams out there and however we came into it we were always going to have our work cut out," added Shakes-Drayton, who won European under-23 gold in 2009.

"I think we all did our jobs as best we could, it wasn't good enough for a medal, but we would have had to do something very special to beat those top three teams.

"They had runners who had been running through the week in the individual competitions and they have are all established performers so the result was probably expected.

"But we now have a bit of experience together and I think we are a good squad and hopefully we can take it on for the rest of the year."

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