Athletics: Jackson saves his best for final hurdle: Champion ends perfect season with quickest run

COLIN JACKSON recorded his best time of the summer in Tokyo yesterday as he ended his season with a perfect, unbeaten record in the 110 metres hurdles.

The world champion won in 12.98sec with Tony Jarrett, who won the World Cup race in London when Jackson was absent with a stomach virus, well back in second place in 13.42.

Linford Christie also ended his season on a winning note, taking the 100m in 10.02, 0.13sec ahead of the American, Dennis Mitchell, who beat him in Berlin last month.

John Regis, another winner in the World Cup, had to settle for third place in the 200m in 20.55. The American, Michael Johnson, won in 20.09, with Namibia's world champion Frankie Fredericks second.

Sonia O'Sullivan, of Ireland, finished second in the 5,000m, nearly 15 seconds behind the Portuguese winner, Fernanda Ribeiro.

It was an acrimonous end to the season for the long-jumper Mike Powell and pole-vaulter Sergei Bubka. Powell staged an astonishing 30-minute tantrum after his last jump of 8.31m was declared a no-jump.

Bubka claimed that he broke his pole on his first jump because an official meant to catch the poles of jumpers had disappeared. 'My pole fell on his chair and broke at the top. If I hadn't noticed it I might have been killed later,' he said.