Gilford's early exit was the more surprising since he matched Nick Faldo's opening round of 69

Gilford's early exit was the more surprising since he matched Nick Faldo's opening round of 69. The atmosphere is terrific and I had a great week."Roe was level-par after 16 holes of the first round, but then had a double- bogey at the 17th and the following day, needing a 72 to survive, ran into a succession of problems. They do not appear to have followed him back to Europe, however, as the 33-year-old shot a seven-under-par 64 in yesterday's pro-am curtain-raiser.If ever a player urgently needed a return to form it is Roe. He has missed the cut in 11 of his last 13 tournaments, a run going back to the Open last July. That record can partly be put down to the break-up of his marriage. The 1994 French Open champion revealed last month that he had considered suicide.Only three of the 12 Europeans who were at Augusta have flown to Cannes - and, like Roe, David Gilford and Costantino Rocca, also missed the cut. It's too short for that and the only way they have to defend it is to trick up the greens But I loved the place.

"What I did say was that I didn't put the course in my top 20. "When I see what Liz is doing in training and look at what I did I don't see any reason why she can't run as fast as I did or even faster," Waitz said "With the marathon, anything can happen on the day But based on her training, she should win on Sunday.". Golf Mark Roe has rebuffed the suggestion that he "stormed" out of Augusta after missing the half-way cut in the US Masters last week. The Sheffield player, in France for the Cannes Open starting at Royal Mougins today, is angry about speculation which implied he might not be invited back to the Masters following comments he made about the course."I didn't storm out at all," said Roe, who had rounds of 74 and 79 on his debut in the event. The biggest problem I had when I was self-trained was that I would tend to be too hard on myself With Grete I have more confidence about easing back.

I trust her judgement."If I had not met Grete when I did I would probably have just run myself into the ground I was getting injury after injury. I would probably still have been running and still hitting my head against the wall, not getting the performances I should have done."Both are confident that Sunday could mark an end to that sequence. I tell Liz, `I have done the mistakes for you so you don't have to do them.' My biggest problem was to convince her she should have some easy days in her training."Sometimes she has tried to do it a little bit her way and a little bit mine and I have not been happy with that. So I said either do it my way or we don't do it at all." So now they do it her way."It is very, very difficult to get someone you can talk to and has the same ideas as yourself," McColgan said "Grete and myself are on the same wavelength.

And she is feeling good on it."Very many runners go from one training system to another because they read about what others are doing," Waitz said "I think Liz was a little bit insecure. When we sat down and talked it was just a case of getting her to go back to the type of training she did five or six years ago."We speak the same language I have been where Liz is. "Even though I'd won the world title and everything, to go up and talk to someone you had looked up to all your life - it was quite an intimidating feeling."She has not regretted her decision. Since linking up with Waitz, her mileage has come down to something closer to 100 miles a week, and she has mixed in track sessions as she used to in 1991 when she won the world 10,000 metres title. I told her I didn't want to interfere, but if she wanted my advice or my help, I was available."A few months later, after finishing a far from happy fifth in London, McColgan wrote to the Norwegian It was not easy for her to do "Grete has always been an idol of mine," McColgan said. "She was running 140 miles a week and she looked tired all the time. Game though Luso may be, he is unlikely to force Cigar's connections on to a course of tranquillisers..