Athletics: British hopes boosted after Lewis and Merry return in style

Britain's two female Olympic medallists, Denise Lewis and Katharine Merry, made promising returns to action this weekend after spending two years on the sidelines.

Lewis, who has not completed a heptathlon since winning the gold medal in Sydney, completed four events in Belgium and the Netherlands in preparation for next month's planned attempt to get a World Championship qualifying mark of 6,105 points in Tallin, Estonia.

The 30-year-old, who gave birth to daughter Lauren 14 months ago, produced a shot put of 5.43 metres in Sittard yesterday - 69 centimetres short of the personal best she set in winning the world silver medal in 1999. Her progress will have been welcomed by the man now advising her on throwing technique, Ekkard Arbeit, whose appointment by Lewis's coach Frank Dick aroused controversy in some quarters because of Arbeit's former position within the discredited East German athletics regime.

Her 200m yesterday, outside 25 seconds, will have been less pleasing to her, but put together with her performance at a low-key meeting in Brussels on Saturday, when she produced a time of 13.60sec in the 100m hurdles and a long jump clearance of 6.08m, her weekend represents an indication that she is on the right track.

Dick, who took over Lewis's training schedule before Christmas, said: "Considering she hasn't competed for two years, this was an important step forward for Denise. The shot put was terrific stuff. She hit three of the hurdles in the latter part of the 100m hurdles of race, but that is to be expected as she has been sharpening up her speed rather than technique.

"With all of the travelling the last couple of days have entailed, I think we can call it a satisfactory weekend and I know Denise will get better and better as the run-up to Tallin and the world championships progresses."

Lewis knows, however, that she will have to keep moving fast if she is to regain competitiveness against the likes of Sweden's world indoor champion Carolina Kluft and her old rival Eunice Barber, who announced her own return to form recently with a 6.80m long jump and a 100m hurdles time of 13.15 at yesterday's Lille grand prix.

Merry's reason for missing the best part of two seasons has been a succession of injuries, but the Olympic 400m bronze medallist was in impressive form on Saturday as she anchored her club, Birchfield Harriers, to a British League 4x400m relay record. So successful was her return that she is now expected to run a leg for the GB team in next weekend's European Cup final.

Merry, who suffered a serious Achilles injury which forced her withdrawal from the 2001 World Championships, was "over the moon" after stepping off the track following her one lap circuit of the Eton track.

And her performance strongly suggests that the aggravation to the injury which kept the 28-year-old out of action last summer finally seems to be healing. Merry covered the final leg in 52.2sec to see her team through to a time of 3min 34.56sec.

"This time last year I was in plaster and as recently as this April I was wondering whether I would have to write-off this season as well," she said. "It has been the worst two years of my life. Athletics is my life, so I have not had any life."

It was a good weekend too for another British woman athlete, Jo Pavey, who won the 3,000m at the Lille grand prix in a time of 8min 41.89sec.

The European indoor 60m champion Jason Gardener, who finished seventh in his opening 100m at Ostrava on Thursday, returned to winning ways at yesterday's EAA Dortmund International meeting. Gardener won in 10.23sec. Fellow sprinters Christian Malcolm and Darren Campbell were out of the running in the Lille 200m, won in 20.23 sec by Frankie Fredericks. Malcolm was fifth in 20.72, with Campbell seventh in 20.75.