Christie cruises to victory

Linford Christie won his first 100 metres race of the year with impressive ease at the Adelaide Grand Prix yesterday.

Running into a strong headwind, the Olympic champion dominated the race from the 40-metre mark and crossed the line in a hand-timed 10 seconds dead. The time is worth the equivalent of around 10.25sec timed electronically. Australia's Tim Jackson was second in 10.3.

Christie has yet to reveal if he will run in the Atlanta Olympics. He has spent the past month in Australia training, increasing speculation that the Olympics will be his swansong. "I just want to go out with a bang this year," Christie said. "I'm in better shape than last year and I'm very, very strong at the moment."

Colin Jackson won the 110m hurdles in 13.39 despite running into a headwind of 2.7mps. "I'm really happy to turn in a performance like that so early in the year," Jackson said.

"Going into that headwind I thought 13.6 would have been a good performance." Jackson's fellow Welshman, Paul Gray, the Commonwealth bronze medallist, was second in 14.04.

Melinda Gainsford, of Australia, won the women's 100m in 11.56 and the 200m in 23.33, while her compatriot, Cathy Freeman, took the 400m in 50.96. Paul Bitok, of Kenya, won the men's 3,000m in 7min 48.09sec.