Athletics: Montgomery below par in victory

Dwain Chambers and the other British sprinters gearing up for the world championships will not have been overawed by the performance of the world record holder, Tim Montgomery, even though the American won the 100 metres in last night's Notturna di Napoli Grand Prix meeting here.

Montgomery, who clocked 9.78sec to make him the world's fastest man last September, won the race in a mediocre 10.11sec after suffering the embarrassment earlier of being outpaced in his heat.

In the final, 90 minutes after losing to Deji Aliu, Montgomery, who has had Achilles tendinitis, reversed the placings on the Nigerian to win by 0.05sec. Another Nigerian, the Commonwealth silver medallist Uchenna Emeddolu, was third in 10.29sec.

The Commonwealth 1500m champion, Michael East, cut more than a second off his personal best of 3min 37.75sec when running his first outdoor metric mile of the season and he was not concerned he only finished seventh.

It was a good night for European middle distance men, with Ivan Hesko setting a Ukrainian record of 3:33.67 in holding off the Kenyans, Isaac Songok and Timothy Kiptanuji to win.