Fiirst time Sudan in Athens Olympics

Britain's loss has turned out to be Sudan's gain after Yamile Aldama, the world's top-ranked triple jumper in 2003, was given permission to compete for the African country in this year's Athens Olympics

Aldama, who was fourth in the Sydney Olympics when representing Cuba, had hoped to compete for Britain, where she has lived since 2001 with her child and British husband, who is now serving a 15-year jail sentence for supplying heroin.

She had asked government officials to cut the three-year wait for a passport because otherwise she would receive it in November this year, three months after the Athens games.

But her appeals fell on deaf ears, despite UK Athletics making representation on her behalf to the home secretary David Blunkett, and it is no surprise she has now pledged her allegiance to a country willing to grant her citizenship immediately.

She did not want to take the risk of missing the Olympics, as had happened with the world championships in Paris last August because she was effectively stateless.

Aldama said she had been in contact with several European countries, including Italy and the Czech Republic. But Sudan contacted her through her agent Andy Norman, the former promotions director of British athletics, and she visited the capital Khartoum 10 days ago with her Harrow-based coach Frank Attoh and met Sudanese government officials, who gave her the passport.

Sudan, which despite being Africa's largest country has won no Olympic medals since its debut in the 1960 games in Rome, was clearly excited at the opportunity of having one of the favourites for a gold medal competing under its flag. The North African country also hopes she will act as a figurehead for its athletics development programme.

Aldama is just the latest top-class athlete to decide to compete for a country with which she has no connection. The International Association of Athletics Federations and the International Olympic Committee have both set up working groups to investigate the growing problem.

It followed the defection last year of Stephen Cherono from Kenya to the oil-rich state of Qatar. Under his new name of Saif Saeed Shaheen he won the gold medal for his new country in the 3,000 metres steeplechase in the world championships in Paris.

But unlike Shaheen, who was promised $1,000 (£540) a month by the Qatari government for the rest of his life, Aldama has received no money for agreeing to compete for Sudan.

Her British-born son Amil has a passport but Aldama's case may have been weakened by the fact that 108kg of heroin valued at £40m was discovered in a warehouse her Scottish-born husband Andrew Dodds had rented.

She will make her debut under her new flag of convenience at the Energizer indoor meeting in Ghent on February 8 and then plans to compete in the Budapest world indoor championships in March.

There her main competitor will be Birmingham's Ashia Hansen, the defending champion and probably the most likely threat to her winning the Olympic gold medal in Athens.