Athletics: Malcolm on track to peak for European sprint titles

Christian Malcolm believes his preparations for next month's European Championships in Sweden are on course after two hard sprint races in Lucerne on Thursday.

Malcolm was beaten in Switzerland in both of his sprint races at the Spitzen Leichtathletik meeting but he remained positive as he targets the 200 metres gold medal in Gothenburg.

The Welshman clocked a time of 10.26sec in the 100m as victory went to the 20-year-old American Xavier Carter in a time of 10.11sec. The 200m was won by last summer's World Championships silver medallist, the American Wallace Spearmon, who missed the meeting record by 0.01sec with a time of 20.30sec.

Malcolm, Europe's fastest man this season over the distance, ran a time of 20.55sec. "I felt well, I ran two solid races," he said. "This was good preparation for the 200m at the British Championships. The half-lap event is my goal for Gothenburg," said Malcolm.

Andrew Baddeley won convincingly in the 1500m in 3min 40.87sec while Rebecca Lyne ran a solid race at the same distance to finish fourth in the female event. Ukraine's Natalya Tobias was the surprise winner in 4:06.07, while the Mozambique legend Maria Mutola, who was planning a sub-four minutes performance, was a non-finisher.

Andy Turner placed fourth in the 110m hurdles in a time of 13.56sec, one position and 0.22sec ahead of William Sharman (13.78). Robbie Hughes, of the US, won in 13.36sec.

Joice Maduaka recorded 11.38sec in her 100m, in which Tahesia Harrigan from Ghana gained an unexpected success in 11.25sec.

Larry Achike and Phillips Idowu underperformed in the triple jump, finishing sixth and eighth with ordinary clearances of 16.61m and 16.58m. Cuba's Yoandri Betanzos beat off the challenge of Brazil's Jadel Gregorio with a winning effort of 16.99m.

Martyn Rooney produced a time of 46.21sec in the 400m race won by South Africa's Paul Gorries in 45.58sec.