Gateshead, July 14: There were a number of impressive performances at a Grand Prix athletics meeting held in Gateshead, UK on Sunday (July 13).
The men's 100 metres was won by Dwain Chambers of Great Britain who battled a strong headwind to clock a time of 10.27 seconds. Chambers' win was somewhat devalued after three athletes -- Commonwealth champion Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis, USA champion Bernard Williams and his compatriot John Capel -- failed to hear the gun for a false start and ran the complete distance. The athletes were not granted any time to recover for the restart, so Chambers was able to take the race relatively comfortably from Britons Mark Lewis-Francis and Darren Campbell. Christian Olsson of Sweden leapt 17.92 metres, the best of his career, to win the triple jump ahead of his great rival Jonathan Edwards of Great Britain. 37-year-old Edwards, making his season's outdoor debut at his home track, produced an impressive leap of 17.61 metres to take second place. Maria Mutola of Mozambique produced a powerful finish to take the women's 800 metres in 1:58.80. Jolanda Ceplak of Slovakia was second in 1:59.96.

Hicham el Guerrouj of Morocco continued his domination of the men's 1,500 metres, outsprinting Paul Korir of Kenya to win in a time of 3:33.41, 0.22 seconds ahead of the Kenyan.

In the women's 100 metres, Torri Edwards of the USA won in a time of 11.46 seconds. Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas was second in 11.48, with Marina Kislova of Russia third in 11.63.

Bureau Report.