Athletics: Chambers puts Greene in the shade once again

Dwain Chambers registered his second win inside 48 hours here yesterday over the man who has dominated the 100 metres event for the past five years, Maurice Greene.

Whether this marks the establishment of a new world order within sprinting, or merely reflects differing ambitions in a season without either World Championships or Olympic Games remains to be seen. Certainly Chambers' manager, John Regis, the former European 200m champion, believes so. But what can be stated with renewed confidence is that the 24-year-old Londoner, whose wind-assisted time of 9.95sec was the fastest recorded by a Briton within these shores, is now in previously uncharted territory.

Yesterday's victory, in which he was chased home by fellow Britons Mark Lewis-Francis, second in 9.97, and Jason Gardener, who recorded 10.11, was not his first over Greene on home soil – he beat him twice in 2000 in similarly cold and blustery conditions at Glasgow and Gateshead.

But it served as a swift and satisfying confirmation of his achievement in Oslo on Friday when he defeated the American world and Olympic champion at the Bislett Games.

Having worked for nine weeks in San Francisco this winter with the coach Remi Korchemny in an effort to improve his technique, the man who led Britiain to the European Cup last weekend is grinning with new-found confidence in his ability.

"There's a new sheriff in town," he said, with a casual salute and grin. "It's nice to whup again.''

Chambers, who began the afternoon by parading the trophy he had helped to win at Annecy the previous weekend, was not the only Briton entitled to feel satisfied. The 19-year-old Lewis-Francis almost caught him at the end despite having a poor start as both men became the first Britons to run under 10 seconds for the event on a home track, albeit with a following wind 0.7 metres per second over the limit admissible for record purposes.

Greene, meanwhile, never appeared in contention and struggled home fifth in 10.24. After he had run a nervous race, he replied with: "I ran a bad race.'' He will not be able to put that record straight in Lausanne tomorrow night as Chambers has pulled out of what was scheduled to be the third of four meetings between the pair in the space of eight games.

Chambers, who required treatment for a strained right shoulders after finishing second to Frankie Fredericks in the 200 metres, also looks certain to miss Friday's ILLS Golden League meeting in Paris as he looks ahead to the European Championship trials in Birmingham on 11-13 July.

"After what he's done in Oslo and again here, Dwain doesn't need to do Lausanne and Paris," Regis said as he reflected upon an athlete whom he believes is now a different person because of the advances he has made this season.

"He knows that beating Maurice is only one hurdle, and he has more in front of him because the Commonwealth Games and European Championships are his main goals this season. But whoever he races against now, he can think for himself: 'Listen – I've beaten the best in world'.

"He's stronger, he's fitter, he's faster and he's confident. He believes it's his turn to try and establish himself as the world's top sprinter. You don't get too many cracks of the whip. His time is now and he's got to take it.''

Greene was not the only world record holder to be defeated on a cold and blustery afternoon on which a modest but enthusiastic crowd greeted the Don Valley Stadium's first big athletics meeting in four years.

In the men's triple jump Jonathan Edwards, who had to stretch himself to defeat Sweden's Christian Olsson in Oslo on Friday, found the challenge of another eager young contender, his fellow Briton Phillips Idowu, a challenge too far.

The world and Olympic champion had to settle for second place in 17.06m as Idowu registered his first win over him with a wind-assisted 17.34m. It was clearly a big moment for Idowu; he pogoed and spun his way down the straight in exuberant celebration.

Briton's other current world record holder, Colin Jackson, who plans to make this his last outdoor season, could only finish third in the 110m hurdles won in 13.36sec by Larry Wade of the United States.

A top-quality javelin event saw another world No 1 was beaten as Jan Zelezny, the double Olympic champion, was second with 87.77m behind Russia's Sergei Makarov, who registered a personal best of 92.61. Britain's Steve Backley, twice Olympic silver medallist behind Zelezny, was third with 84.93.