Athletics: Christie rises to meet new challenge

LINFORD CHRISTIE, who retired from top class sprinting in 1997, finished second in the 60 metres at yesterday's indoor meeting at Karlsruhe in an outstanding time of 6.57sec, only a tenth of a second off his personal best.

The former world and Olympic 100m champion, who will be 39 in April, is returning briefly to competition after a challenge from the members of his training group, including Darren Campbell and Jamie Baulch. He plans to run the 60 metres at next weekend's AAA indoor meeting at Birmingham, and yesterday's race in Germany served as a warm-up. He was runner-up to Marc Blume, who recorded 6.54.

"We had to listen to the same old claims, so we decided to set a challenge," said Campbell, who succeeded Christie as European 100m champion last summer. "We have all moved on and Linford doesn't have a hope of running the times he used to."

However, Christie's time in Karlsruhe, the fastest by a Briton this season, has established him as favourite in Birmingham and is 0.01sec faster than Campbell has yet run.