Christie and Jackson back on track before Europa Cup

Athletics

Britain's two male world champions, Linford Christie and Colin Jackson, returned to winning ways in Madrid last night.

In windy conditions, Christie, beaten in his first three international races this season, earned a 100 metres victory in 10.35sec. The Briton came through powerfully in the last 10 metres to finishing .02sec ahead of Donovan Bailey, of Canada, who has already run below 10 seconds this year.

Jackson, the first to congratulate him, had had the unusual experience earlier in the evening of running outside 14 seconds in the 110 metres hurdles and still coming home first.

The Welshman, beaten in his last two races, stumbled badly at the start and had to work hard to pass Emilio Valle in the final five metres, recording 14.07sec - a time he was accustomed to beating 11 years ago at the age of 17 - to the Cuban's 14.12.

Jackson may yet be the only one of Britain's world champions to run in Lille - Sally Gunnell is out injured, while Christie, who will attend his mother's funeral on Friday, is likely to make a last-minute decision. Britain's selectors are leaving it to him to say if he feels ready to compete over the following two days.

"If he can, I will be delighted," said Britain's chief coach, Malcolm Arnold, who is maintaining regular contact with Christie's coach, Ron Roddan. "But I will understand if he can't. Unless he tells me otherwise, I am assuming he will not be. As far as I'm concerned the lad is mourning his mother's death and we should leave it at that."

Christie is due to run the 100 metres on Saturday and the 200 metres on Sunday. His nominated replacement in both events is the world indoor silver medallist, Darren Braithwaite.

Roger Black, included in the Europa Cup 400 metres relay squad, improved his best for the season to 45.07sec to earn a significant victory over Samson Kitur, Kenya's Olympic bronze medallist, who clocked 45.22.

There was one definite British team change yesterday when Louise Fraser was drafted into the 400 metres hurdles event following Jacqui Parker's withdrawal from injury.

In the triple jump, Yoelbi Quesada of Cuba recorded 17.97 metres, equal to Willie Banks's 10-year-old world record.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 31