Athletics: Campbell battles to silver medal

(First Edition)

DARREN CAMPBELL, the European junior 100 and 200 metres champion, won a silver medal for Britain in the World Junior championships 100m in Seoul yesterday.

Campbell held off three challengers to finish second behind Ato Boldon, of Trinidad, a runaway winner in 10.36sec. Campbell clocked 10.46, edging the American Theodore McCall by three hundredths of a second. Britain's Jason Fergus finished fifth in 10.54.

Women's medal hope Katharine Merry finished a disappointing sixth in the 100 metres final but her sights are set on success in the 200 metres. Merry clocked 11.63 behind a winning time of 11.30 set by Jamaica's Nicole Mitchell. Britain's Donna Hoggarth was seventh in 11.69.

Britain's Carl Southam and Guy Bullock ran impressive heats to reach today's 400 metres final. Southam, the British junior champion, reached the 200 metres mark in under 22 seconds and came off the bend in second place behind top-ranked Deon Minor, of the United States, and held on to finish in a personal best time of 46.59 seconds - third fastest of the day.

With him in final is Bullock, the youngest member of the British team. He took second place in his heat in 46.74.

The American Brian Milne, who has overcome cancer, won the men's discus with a throw of 58.28m, beating Frits Potgieter, of South Africa, by 2 meters.

Milne, the fourth best junior discus thrower of all time, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease - a form of cancer - in 1990 and put under medication. He made a complete recovery and in March threw 63.22m, a US junior record and the best mark by a junior in 1992.

The five-day championships, which opened Wednesday, have attracted 1,002 athletes from 99 countries, including Cuba and South Africa, with which South Korea has no diplomatic relations.