Athletics: Christie's fast start: Olympic champion run close

LINFORD CHRISTIE produced one of his fastest starts to a year yesterday at the Scottish Indoor Championships at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.

Christie, back after 10 weeks training in Australia, braved the snow and paid his pounds 3.50 entry fee to appear. He needed to be sharp to fend off Birmingham's Michael Rosswess, the European indoor bronze medallist, over 60 metres.

Quicker out of the blocks, Rosswess was only overhauled in the last couple of strides as Christie powered through to win by three-hundredths of a second in 6.60sec. Manchester's Darren Campbell was third in 6.70. Christie, feeling a slight tightness in his hamstrings, decided not to attempt the 200m.

'I'm in very, very good shape and the speed will come next,' he said. 'My training tells me I'm up on what I was doing this time last year, but it's 60-40 that I won't be running the European Indoor Championships in Paris (11-13 March). My ambition this year is to defend my Commonwealth and European titles, and the world 100m record would be nice.'

Christie's next scheduled race is at the same stadium on Saturday when he meets Colin Jackson over 60m in the Great Britain v Russia international.

Scotland's Tom McKean started his season well, winning the 800m in 1min 49.19sec on the track where he won the European indoor title four years ago.