World Athletics Championships: Jackson adheres to golden rule for Britain: British hurdlers hit the heights as Regis claims silver and drugs test gives Hill a bronze

WHEN it finally happened for Colin Jackson, it all happened together. Last night in the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium he became the 110 metres world champion and world record-holder in a time of 12.91seconds, 0.01 seconds faster than that which Roger Kingdom ran four years ago.

After Jackson, then 21, had won silver behind Kingdom at the 1988 Olympics, the American forecast that he would eventually come through to be the world's best. At 26 - slightly later than Kingdom and the rest of the world envisaged - Jackson has done that, banishing the doubts that had gathered following his successive failures at the last World Championships and Olympic Games.

His performance in joining Linford Christie and Sally Gunnell as a gold medallist was the high point of Britain's most successful day of the championships.

Tony Jarrett, in a personal best time of 13.00sec, claimed the silver behind Jackson, John Regis took the silver medal behind Frankie Fredericks in the 200m - becoming the first Briton to run under 20 seconds in the process - and Mick Hill, watching on television at his home in Leeds, discovered that he had earned a belated bronze in the javelin following a positive drug test on the man who finished third in Monday's final, Dmitriy Polyunin, of Uzbekistan.

Jackson, who had entered the final with 15 consecutive victories this season, had raised fears earlier this month that injuries might once again prevent him from translating his superiority into medals.

Problems with his back - the source of his difficulty at the Barcelona Olympics, where he clattered through to seventh place, and the last World Championships, where he was not able to run his semi-final, forced him to pull out of the Zurich Grand Prix and delayed departure to his pre-championship training base in Monte Carlo.

He nevertheless insisted on arrival here that he was in shape to win, and he said he would definitely run under 13 seconds. Circumstances denied him the opportunity of racing Mark McKoy, the training partner who had taken the Olympic gold.

McKoy was not selected, having missed the national trial, and could not have run anyway because of a hamstring injury. But even if he had been fit and here, McKoy would not have been able to match Jackson's performance here.

McKoy has said on several occasions that the only person who could beat Jackson was Jackson himself. There was no doubt clouding the Briton's mind once he had got off to the fastest start in the field, with a reaction time of just 0.1222sec, that he would win.

'I knew it was mine,' he said. 'I have never felt so sure about anything. The world record was always on, but I can go faster still. I didn't think of anything else. I let them worry about me.'

The Welshman's normal ebullience almost gave way to tears on the podium; realisation tugged at his face. It was an emotional moment, too, for Christie. 'I ran every hurdle with him,' said Britain's team captain. 'It moved me to tears. It gave me twice as much pleasure as my race.'

The sight of Gunnell going off to the Mercedes factory to choose her car - the perk on offer to all winners here - proved a powerful motivation. 'She said I had to do the same,' Jackson said. 'Linford and Sally got to me like Linford and I had to Sally. They said: 'You are the best. Go out there, prove it, do it.' '

There was joy too for Jarrett, who missed the Olympic bronze by a fraction last summer. 'I knew I was going to have a good race when I put pressure on Tony Dees and he buckled,' Jarrett said.

The silver medal - in a British record of 19.94sec, behind Fredericks's 19.85sec - was a triumph for Regis, who needed treatment before the final after straining a muscle during the warm-up. He spent the winter training with the Olympic champions, Quincy Watts and Kevin Young, in Los Angeles in an effort to put the memory of his own disappointment in Barcelona, where he finished sixth, behind him.

He had unfinished business in this championship, having lost the 200m title in Rome six years ago after being overtaken in the final stride and finishing with the bronze. 'I was amazed that I ran so fast,' said Regis, who pushed Carl Lewis into third place. 'I thought it would be won in 20 flat. I was ahead at 160 but Frankie always makes a late run and there was nothing I could do about it.'

Hill, who flew home from Stuttgart on Wednesday after finishing Monday night's final in fourth place, just 40 centimetres behind Polyunin, was stunned by news of his windfall.

'I can't believe it,' he said. 'I am absolutely thrilled. I am going to go out and have some champagne and a few beers with my fiance, Stephanie.'

Success has been a long time coming for Hill, whose career has been punctuated by serious knee injuries and oftern overshadowed by the achievements of his training partner, Steve Backley.

He has improved steadily at these championships, finishing in seventh place in 1987, and moving up to fifith place in Tokyo two years ago. After his last throw of the competition here, he gave a leap of elation, believing he had done enough for a medal. Which he had. Polyunin was disqualified and suspended for four years after testing positive for the steroid stanozolol.

Mike Powell and Dan O'Brien won their expected golds in the long jump and decathlon. Gail Devers, winner of the 100m, completed the double which eluded her in the Barcelona Olympics by adding the 100m hurdles title with a time of 12.46. In Barcelona she had been on the brink of victory when she stumbled and fell.

Matthew Yates ran a sensible and controlled race to reach tomorrow's 1,500m final, tracking the eventual heat winner, the Olympic champion Fermin Cacho, around the final bend. Steve Cram found the pace far too testing in the other semi-final, which was won by the defending champion, Noureddine Morceli in 3:40.07.

Cram was well enough placed in sixth at the bell, but as the field rounded the final bend, runners began to stream past him. His arms were working; his legs were working; but it was like watching a cyclist pedalling furiously in a low gear.

Lewis takes bronze medal, Gunnell's plea, results, page 51

(Photograph omitted)