Nick McCormick has risked the wrath of his paymasters today by branding the inclusion policy at this weekend's Loughborough International as "downright amateur". McCormick- who is still yet to make his debut for the African Violets- has been left out of the event after his new haircut was ruled to be outside the legal limit for shortness. A spokesman for LIA Events Ltd., said that they were "deeply saddened" to have to exclude McCormick, but that rules were "there for a reason". The source continued, "we have a good number of dignitaries attending and it isn't right that they be encountered by such an intimidating hair style. Athletes who have their hair that short for medical reasons are welcome to apply for a Therapeutic Shortness Exemption (TSE). Sadly, Mr. McCormick failed to do this." The Morpeth man was not willing to accept this, however, and is rumoured to have "given [Alasdair Donaldson] an earful" over the omission. McCormick ruled out a "sit in protest" at the event on the grounds that he "had better things to do than worry about stupid small time meets at the start of the season".
The great irony is that McCormick only had his hair cut in the past week after it was deemed to be interfering with his training. In a recent session, the 3:33.9 1500m man was "roughly half a second" per repetition down on target and his "stupidly long" hair took the blame. "It was getting silly," explained the GB International, "and so I sat down with my coach and we discussed appropriate lengths.....it was always in the plan that I have this sort of drastic haircut- it's just come a couple of years sooner."
A bad week could get worse for McCormick on Friday when he is set to appear before a panel of "furious" Loughborough chiefs. It is thought that the hierarchy are becoming increasingly frustrated by a failure to see a return on their hefty investment. "It quite clearly states in his contract that he is not to go getting haircuts without our approval" said a disgruntled insider, "the whole point of the College is that we can house people like [McCormick] and if they keep skipping events like LIA, it really casts doubt on whether it's worth the money." Our source also stated that it was "inevitable" that McCormick would be fined over the mishap.