Athletics: World Student Games: Britain win two medals on the track

ON THE final day of the games Lynne Robinson and Gary Lough proved yesterday that middle-distance running talent in Britain is far from being exhausted.

Robinson easily won the 1500m in a personal best time of 4min 12.03sec in the intense heat here to win Britain's first track medal. Lough came third in the men's 1500m, making up 20 metres on the leaders with a final lap of 53sec. Abdel Kader Chekheman, of France, won the race in 3:46.32.

Jacqueline McKernan beat her own Northern Ireland record when coming second in the final of the women's discus with a throw of 60.72m, less than two metres short of that by Renata Katewicz, of Poland.

Early in the 1500m, which was a physical race, the 24-year-old Robinson became boxed in. But, with 200m to go, the pace increased and the field spread out, allowing her to move out a lane and cruise past Juli Speights, of the United States, the eventual silver medallist, and Sarah Howell, of Canada, who took bronze.

Robinson, who is taking a PhD in social history at Warwick University, said: 'With 200m to go I went so well it was frightening. I was determined that no one would take me on the home straight.'

Of the physical nature of the race, she said: 'I gave as good as I got but I've got to watch it because I'm only small and one time I was lifted off the track.'

Given 10 more metres, Lough would have caught the leaders, but he left his burst just too late. Nevertheless, he was happy: 'It was a good quality race. I could do with more like that.'

The British football team lost 2-1 to Germany in the third-place play-offs match yesterday. Germany went 2-0 up by half-time and hung on to win despite Jonathan Magee's goal for Britain with 15 minutes remaining on the clock.

On Saturday Michelle Griffiths jumped a personal best of 13.75m to break the Commonwealth record in the women's triple jump. She finished fourth. The gold went to Nivrka Montavo Amaro, of Cuba, with a jump of 14.16m.