Lorraine Ugen and Marc Scott lift the gloom for Great Britain

Lorraine Ugen doesn’t have a sponsor, but as of Sunday evening she does have another World Indoor bronze medal. With it, the long jumper was able to lift a little of the gloom around Britain’s team in Belgrade.

That the 34 members of that squad delivered only two podium finishes in Serbia told of the thin reserves available to the head coach, Christian Malcolm. 

Indeed, of 35 trips to world championships, indoors and out, on just two occasions has the British haul been less.

But at least the final day offered an uplifting conclusion for Malcolm, first with Marc Scott taking bronze in the 3000m, before Ugen offered her retort to the sport’s commercial sector in the evening.

It was Ugen’s second such placing, six years after the first, but crucially this one came in a period of great personal flux, in which she has had to readjust after being dropped by her sponsor last year. Her response was to start her own brand, pointedly called Unsigned, and there was a time when the limited scale of the operation meant sewing her own kit.

If that scenario signified external doubts around her ability to perform at the age of 30, then they were addressed by a jump of 6.82m, to finish behind Serbia’s gold medallist Ivana Vuleta and second-placed Ese Brume of Nigeria.

‘I believe I was good enough to be a contender in the world and to get a medal shows that I deserve to have the (sponsor) support,’ Ugen said. ‘I’m world-class, I don’t have a sponsor and if anyone is out there, I’m here.’

Scott’s bronze behind the Ethiopian pairing of Selemon Barega and Lamecha Girma hinted at a quickly emerging contender. The 28-year-old has drawn attention for a succession of quick times, including the European indoor 5,000m record, but this was his