'Winner' Christie is booed

LINFORD CHRISTIE, the world and Olympic sprint champion, was farcically allowed to run in yesterday's KP National Championship and World Championships trials in Birmingham, after finishing only fourth in a heat and officially failing to qualify for the final. He said later that an injury was threatening to end his season prematurely.

Christie had slowed after 60 metres of his heat, but was already well behind Darren Campbell who went on to win. Christie's time of 10.93sec was not good enough to secure a place in the final, but after he complained about a leg injury, the competition officials allowed him to become a "guest" runner in the final which he won without being able to call himself "champion".

Some of the crowd booed him as he crossed the line. Since he had already achieved the world championship qualifying time there was no question of his replacing another athlete in the British team to be selected tonight. But the whole situation, coming so soon after the conclusion of a long- running dispute between Christie and the British Athletic Federation over appearance money, added to a season full of controversy.

Christie said: "I'm riddled with injury. For three weeks I've had this pain behind the knee. Every time I run it's tugging. I thought I was OK today, but a physio said I shouldn't run. I was just glad to get to the line with my hamstring intact. Now I'm all seized up."

Christie now joins Sally Gunnell and Colin Jackson on the doubtful list for the World Championships in three weeks' time. He said: "I'm still hoping to go to Gothenburg and give it my best shot."

Peter Radford, chief executive of the BAF, said it was "unusual and irregular" for a runner to be invited to run in a final after failing to qualify. "But this was a special arrangement. Clearly the crowd was disappointed."

Full report, page 3