In Linford Christie's slipstream

Ian Mackie

Age: 22. Personal best: 10.1sec. Not since 1983, when Allan Wells finished fourth in the inaugural final, has the British 100m challenge been spearheaded in the World Championships by anyone other than Linford Christie. With Christie at last in retiring mood, the latest "flying Scotsman" starts as clear favourite to lead the charge into the new era by winning the short sprint at the World Championship Trials in Birmingham at the weekend. Twelve months ago Mackie was a surprise qualifier for Britain's Olympic team but he reached the semi-finals in Atlanta and has twice beaten Christie, most recently after leading Donovan Bailey for half of the Securicor 150m challenge race in Sheffield. Coached by John Macdonald (father of the 1980 Olympic 4 x 400m relay bronze medallist Linsey Macdonald) but also guided by Christie and Colin Jackson, he seems destined to eclipse the Scottish record Wells set when winning the Olympic 100m title in Moscow in 1980 - 10.11sec.

Darren Campbell

Age: 23. Personal best: 10.17sec. Like Mackie, Campbell has been taken under Christie's wing as part of the Nuff Respect stable. The Mancunian has an identical personal best to Mackie's, 10.17sec from last summer. Unlike the Scot, he was a teenage prodigy. Winner of the 100m and 200m at the European Junior Championships in 1991, he was denied the double at the World Junior Championships in Seoul the following year by Ato Boldon, who beat him to the gold in both races. Boldon was a double Olympic bronze medallist last summer but Campbell has yet to make his mark as a senior. He finished joint fourth in the British trials 12 months ago and went to Atlanta only as a member of the 4 x 100m relay team, who were disqualified in the heats. Ran a season's best of 10.24sec in Bratislava a month ago, but his most impressive run this summer was being placed fourth behind Bailey, Mackie and Christie in the Sheffield 150m.

Jason Livingston

Age: 26. Personal best: 10.09sec. Livingston was emerging as the heir to Christie before it was revealed that he was not doing so as an entirely natural one. He was in Barcelona on the eve of the 1992 Olympic Games when the result of an out-of-competition drug test showed the presence of the anabolic steroid Methandienone in his system. Earlier that year Livingston had won the European indoor 60m title and beaten Carl Lewis over the same distance at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow. The 10.09sec he clocked when winning the Southern 100m in June 1992 remains second on the British all-time ranking list, behind Christie's European record (9.87sec). The Croydon Harrier clocked 10.42sec last summer, after serving his four-year ban, and returned to international competition in the 60m heats at the World Indoor Championships in Paris in March. His form in the 1997 outdoor season includes second place behind Mackie in the Inter Counties 100m, a victory over Campbell in the Welsh Games and a year's best of 10.30sec.