Athletics: Briton strikes silver

JASON GARDENER won a silver medal for Britain in the 100 metres in the world junior championships here last night, writes Duncan Mackay from Lisbon.

Gardener made nonsense of the ranking list to finish behind Nigeria's Deji Aliu and match the achievement of Darren Campbell in Seoul two years ago. The 18-year-old has been taking chunks from his personal best of 10.42sec since he arrived here, but saved his most savage cut for when it truly mattered. His time of 10.25sec leaves him equal second with Jason Livingston on the UK junior all-time list behind Jamie Henderson.

Gardener, a student at Bath College, led Aliu for the first half of the race until he was overtaken by his long-striding rival, who won in 10.21sec. Julian Golding, the other Briton in the final, finished eighth in 10.46sec.

Sally Gunnell's UK junior 100m hurdles record of 13.30sec had stood for 10 years until Diane Allahgreen ran the kind of race every hurdler dreams about in the semi- finals here yesterday, skimming effortlessly over the barriers with the help of a light tail-wind. She won in 13.25sec, five hundredths of a second quicker than anyone else going into this evening's final.