Athletics: Christie's third reverse

LINFORD CHRISTIE will soon be seeing Olapade Adeniken in his nightmares. At the Ivo Van Damme Memorial meeting in Brussels last night, the Nigerian continued his single-handed demolition of Christie's ego when he beat the Olympic 100 metres champion for the third time in three races since Barcelona.

Two days after their last meeting, Adeniken edged out Christie 10.12sec to 10.15. Colin Jackson, finally tired of beating everyone over high hurdles, joined in the flat sprint, duly finishing last in 10.38.

Moses Kiptanui's attempt on Said Aouita's 5,000m world record of 12min 58.39sec was unsuccessful, but only just, the 20-year-old Kenyan recording the third fastest time ever, 13:00.93. The 3,000m and steeplechase records have already fallen to him in the past 10 days.

His compatriots, William Tanui and Nixon Kiprotich, staged a re-run of the Olympic 800m final, Tanui coming through strongly in the home straight to overtake Kiprotich, just as he did in Spain, to win in 1:45.05. Kiprotich clocked 1:45.25 while Britain's David Sharpe was a good third in 1:45.32.

Gail Devers, the Olympic 100m champion who was denied a second gold medal in the 100m hurdles when she hit the last flight, did it the other way round last night, losing out in the flat but making no mistake in the hurdles, winning in 12.64 after a slow start. Merlene Ottey took some consolation for a disappointing summer by recording a sprint double with Irina Privalova second in both events.

Russia's former world record holder, Margarita Ponomaryova, out of the medals in Barcelona, hit the eighth barrier but managed to win the women's 400m hurdles ahead of Sandra Farmer-Patrick. Gwen Torrence, the Olympic 200m champion, stepped up a distance to win the 400m in 50.06, ahead of Jamaica's Sandie Richards.

Kevin Young once again bestrode the men's 400m hurdles, despite hitting the final barrier. The American Olympic world record-holder lost his balance and struggled to stay in his lane, but still finished more than three-tenths of a second ahead of Zambia's world champion, Samuel Matete.

Unsurprisingly, the Kenyans made a clean sweep of the steeplechase, with victory going to Philip Barkutwo in 8:12.70. The Olympic silver medallist, Patrick Sang, was well behind in second place in 8:16.40 with the Olympic champion, Matthew Birir, third in 8:16.48.

The American Olympic bronze medallist Michael Bates raced away with the 200m in 20.13, with Britain's Marcus Adam fourth in 20.74. Mike Powell, the world long jump champion, also won with a leap of 8.57m.

Results, page 51