Athletics: Britain rule Europe after relay team win last race

Britain's athletes did their bit to lift the national mood after the disappointment of Japan by winning the European Cup here for the fourth time in six years and the fifth time overall. It meant they qualified for their own World Cup in Madrid three months from now.

The result was not assured until the final event of a bakingly hot weekend at the foot of the Alps, with Daniel Caines, one of six individual British winners here, bringing home the 4x400 metres relay quartet to a victory which left the team four points clear of Germany, who also go forward to the World Cup event in Madrid in three months' time.

The men's team captain, Dwain Chambers, who had won the 100m and anchored the sprint relay team to maximum points on Saturday, could not resist drawing a comparison with the men who made their exit against Brazil on Friday.

"When the chips are down, we have proved we have got what it takes to pull through,'' he said, shortly before undergoing the winning captain's traditional team-dunking in the water jump. "Unlike England, we didn't succumb to the pressure.''

Having entered the second day of competition just a couple of points adrift of their French hosts, Britain's men benefited from the experience of three of their most illustrious athletes in recent years.

Colin Jackson provided the first win of the day in the 110m hurdles, earning his fifth and final European Cup victory at the age of 35, and clocking 13.15sec, his fastest time for two years.

Jonathan Edwards, one year Jackson's senior, secured his sixth triple jump title with 17.19m; and Steve Backley, a comparative junior at 33, took second place in the javelin behind Sergei Makarov, of Russia, with a throw of 85.03m.

With Chris Tomlinson's contribution of maximum points from the previous day's long jump, and Marlon Devonish's impressive 200m victory in 20.27sec, just 0.02sec outside his personal best, it added up to the ideal preparation for this summer's twin peaks of the Commonwealth Games and European Championships, and a welcome turn of fortune after the disappointment of securing just one gold and one bronze from last year's World Championships in Edmonton.

Britain's women appeared perilously close to relegation at one stage, particularly as the weakest women's team here, Italy, were immune to demotion because Florence will host next year's event. Their cause was not helped by the misunderstanding on the final changeover between Amanda Forrester and Vernicha James in Saturday's sprint relay which resulted in no points being earned.

But after Jo Pavey had run the world champion, Olga Yegorova, close in the 5,000m ­ a year after the Briton had added her voice to protests over the Russian's inclusion in the World Championships following a positive test for the blood-oxygen booster, EPO, which was annulled on a technicality ­ to lift her team to the safety of fifth place, the position was secured by a determined performance in the concluding 4x400m relay from Catherine Murphy, Helen Frost, Helen Karagounis and Lee McConnell. Britain finished second behind the Russians, but were promoted to relay winners after four disqualifications. The overall women's title went, nevertheless, to Russia, who finished almost 20 points clear of Germany.

Yegorova was whistled and booed by the crowd as she made her way down the finishing straight ahead of the British runner. "I suppose she's just got to suffer the consequences of what she has done,'' Pavey said.

Max Jones, the UK Performance Director, expressed huge satisfaction with the weekend's outcome. "The sport needed this after Edmonton, which was by anyone's standards a disaster. I was especially pleased for the women, who dug in after losing five or six points in Saturday's relay. It's always great to win the Cup. People forget just how successful British athletics has been in the last 20 years, Jones said. "It would have been a pity to have missed out on the World Cup. It would have been an empty end to the season if we were watching it on TV."

Before the competition began, Jones had spoken of the inclusion of Carl Myerscough in both shot and discus events as being the key to Britain's success. Myerscough, troubled with a chest muscle injury, had to pull out of the discus having managed only sixth place in the shot. But happily Jones' prediction in this case proved inaccurate.

The World Cup will mark the last outside race of Jackson's career, although the 110m hurdles world record holder plans to run the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham next year. "This is my last European Cup. So it was nice to get a win, especially in that time," he said. "It is all background to the Commonwealths and Europeans."

Jackson's performance here means he can go into the two big competitions of the summer with realistic medal hopes. As can many of his team-mates.