Athletics: Gardener serves notice with world-leading mark

Jason Gardener reinforced his position as the fastest sprinter around this year by setting the fastest 60 metres mark of the indoor season in Karlsruhe yesterday.

Britain's 30-year-old Olympic sprint relay gold medallist won his heat in a time of 6.55sec and went on to win the final, even though a poorer start restricted him to 6.58. Twenty-four hours earlier he had established the world leading mark at 6.59 with his victory in the Norwich Union International at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall, but he was deposed from the top of the rankings overnight following the 6.57 of US sprinter and high hurdler Terence Trammell in Boston.

That state of affairs was rectified as soon as Gardener took to the boards again in Germany, however, with a performance that belied a hectic travelling schedule which entailed an overnight stop at Heathrow and an early morning journey to the venue via Stuttgart airport.

"He looked very good in the heats, but he was a bit knackered in the final," said Gardener's coach, Malcolm Arnold. "We had to get up at 4.30 in the morning and only arrived a couple of hours before he was due to run. So it has been a pleasing weekend in the circumstances. It's mission accomplished, really."

It was the third top class victory in succession for Gardener, who braved -20C temperatures to win last Wednesday night's Moscow meeting in 6.60. Gardener, who has chosen to contest the Commonwealth Games in March rather than the World Indoor Championships which precede it, will return to Bath for training this week before returning to Germany to compete in next Saturday's Stuttgart meeting.

Gardener was not the only British athlete to draw encouragement from the weekend. Nathan Morgan, who has chosen to seek a world indoor medal in Moscow rather than defending his Commonwealth long jump title in Melbourne, put two years of injuries behind him with an impressive flourish in Glasgow, becoming one of four home winners on the day with a first-round effort of 8.05 metres, an indoor personal best.

Morgan needs to find another five centimetres to achieve the world indoor qualifying mark, something he intends to do in his native city of Birmingham at the indoor grand prix on 18 February.

The two other Brits to profit were Daniel Caines, who took the 400m in a world indoor qualifying time of 46.90sec, and Andrew Baddeley, who won the 1500m in 3min 43.50sec.

Like Morgan, Caines - a former world indoor champion - has spent several seasons battling with injury, and relief was the most obvious emotion after a race in which he beat Jamaica's world and Olympic medallist Davian Clarke.

"I'm happy to be back here, injury-free and winning," said Caines, who relocated from his native Birmingham to North Carolina last October. He has no plans to return on a permanent basis - so far that decision is working well.

The British victories were not enough to carry the day as Russia - whose women's 4x400m quartet set a world record of 3:23.37 - won a competition that also included Italy and a Commonwealth Select team.

The night before, the former sprinter Karen Harewood, who returned to the sport two years ago after having a child, moved into medal contention at the World Indoors by winning the 800m in Budapest with a time of 2:00.53, which established her as third in this year's world rankings.

Harewood followed this with another fine run at the IAAF Development Meeting in Bratislava yesterday, hitting the front after 300m and winning in 2:01.44.