ATHLETICS

Daniel Komen, of Kenya, broke the two miles world record on Saturday at the Hechtel track meeting, Belgium, with a time of 7min 58.61sec. He cut 2.47sec off the mark set by the Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie at the much-publicized Hengelo meeting on 31 May, when $1m were at stake to break eight minutes. Not invited to that event, Komen received a $50,000 bonus for his feat.

Khaled Sulaiman el-Khaledi, of Saudi Arabia, became the first athlete to be disqualified at the Arab Games for drug violation. Testing for performance enhancing drugs and steroids was introduced this year for the first time at the eighth pan-Arab event in Beirut. El-Khaledi was stripped of the gold medal he won in the men's discus on Monday and the silver in the shot last Sunday for use of the banned stimulant, ephedrine.

Olympic champion Donovan Bailey won his third 100 metre title in the Canadian track and field championships in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Bailey, who set the world record of 9.84sec last summer in the Atlanta Olympics, is bothered by a hamstring as he prepares to preparing to defend his title in the world championships early next month in Athens.

World record holder Colin Jackson recorded his best time of the season in the 110 metres hurdles at a meeting in Ingolstadt yesterday. The Briton, who set a world record 12.91 in Stuttgart in 1993, won the race in 13.24sec ahead of Germany's Falk Balzer (13.46).