Gebrselassie sails home

Haile Gebrselassie shattered his own 5,000 metres indoors world record in Stockholm's Globen arena last night to become the first man to complete the event in under 13 minutes indoors.

The Ethiopian finished in 12min 59.04sec, cutting more than 11 seconds off the mark. "I had hoped to win the record but I hadn't expected to get under 13 minutes," Gebrselassie said.

With his 37th birthday in sight, Linford Christie continues to thrive on competition. The 1992 Olympic gold medallist easily beat his training partner, Darren Campbell, in the 100 metres at the Melbourne Grand Prix yesterday.

Christie did just enough to win in 10.20sec, with Campbell finishing in 10.26 and the Australian Steve Brimacombe third in 10.42. Tony Jarrett was beaten in the 110m hurdles by the experienced American Jack Pierce, finishing in 13.62sec behind Pierce's 13.54.

At the same meeting, Emma George, Australia's pole vault world record- holder, broke her own record, jumping 4.55 metres to better the 4.50 she jumped earlier this month.

Ben Johnson's attempts to race competitively again were dismissed as "strange" by the International Amateur Athletic Federation yesterday.

The 35-year-old Canadian sprinter, banned for life after a second positive drug test in 1993, was said by his manager Morris Chrobotek to have made a request for reinstatement, but an IAAF spokesman, Giorgio Reineri, said: "We have had an exchange of papers but we haven't received any official request from the Canadian Federation."

n Reebok yesterday announced a four-year sponsorship deal with the British Athletics Federation worth around pounds 1m a year.