Athletics: Confident Christie

Linford Christie arrived at Britain's Olympic training camp in Tallahassee last night in relaxed mood, confident of his prospects of retaining the 100 metres title in Atlanta.

Asked about his chances of becoming only the second man after Carl Lewis to achieve a successful defence, he said: "You guys are more worried than I am. All that matters is what happens on the 26th and 27th. Anything before that is not important.

"There is still some speed work to be done, but I think I'm in good shape. If I'm not, it's too late to worry about. I started enjoying athletics again at the start of the season and I'll be enjoying it even more here."

Antonella Bevilacqua, one of the top six women's high jumpers in the world, may miss the Olympics despite being cleared by Italian authorities after twice testing positive twice for ephedrine. The IAAF has not accepted she took the drug by mistake and want to ban her for three months.

Daniel Komen, who failed to make Kenya's Olympic team, shattered the world two-mile record by almost four seconds in Finland yesterday, clocking 8min 3.54sec. Ethiopia's Haile Gebrse- lassie set the old record of 8:07.46.