SOPHIE Hancock says she only has herself to blame after failing to return home from the IPC World Athletics Championships in New Zealand with a medal.

The 24-year-old Boltonian finished fifth in the F40 shot put on a wet and windy day at Christchurch’s Queen Elizabeth II Park throwing a best of 7.54metres with her third attempt.

That was good enough for the Aviva GB&NI ace to break the European record while it was also just four centimetres shy of the personal best she set in Gateshead last year. But having finished fifth in both the shot and the discus at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008 Hancock was disappointed and refused to use the wintry conditions as an excuse. “It is a bit disappointing really, I am disappointed with the distance, disappointed with the result overall and I am feeling really gutted,” said Hancock, who benefited from an Aviva-funded preparation camp prior to arriving in Christchurch.

“I’ve had a fantastic preparation, I’ve had a good build up, the only thing I can think of is that this competition has come at a funny time of year.

“It has been hard to train properly back at home because of the cold weather but at the end of the day that is just me making excuses – I should have done better.

“Obviously it was cold and it was raining but I should look at the positive of that and I should be more experience and more used to that weather than the other people in my class. So I can’t really blame the weather, I can’t blame anything I just didn’t pull it out on the day.”

Tunisia’s Raoua Tlili set a new championship record of 9.23m to take gold while China’s Meng Genjimisu won silver and Morocco’s Laila El Garaa bronze.

Hancock, who flies home on Monday insists there is plenty she can take from her Kiwi exploits ahead of the London 2012 Paralympics.

Aviva has been supporting British athletes since 1999. To find out more about Aviva’s athletics sponsorship, go to aviva.co.uk/athletics