Athletics: Tomlinson victory suggests greater successes in future

You might have expected Chris Tomlinson to be more pleased. After all, in what was only his second senior international appearance, the 20-year-old beanpole from Middlesbrough had proved a commanding winner of the European Cup long jump event, with three of his four efforts registering over eight metres.

But while the man who broke Lynn Davies' 34-year-old British record two-months-ago with a jump of 8.27 metres expressed due satisfaction at contributing full points to Britain's opening day here, he was clearly less than pleased with his performance. As the Commonwealth Games and European Championships loom, his reaction offered genuine promise of greater things to come.

''I'm disappointed I didn't go further,'' Tomlinson said, screwing up his eyes against the glare of a day in which the temperature held steady at a barely bearable 35C. "I was trying to work on my flight technique, but it didn't happen.''

What did happen in a competition where Tomlinson had predicted an 8.20m jump would prove enough to win was that he produced an opening effort of 8.17, which ultimately earned him the honours ahead of the 8.15 managed by Nicola Trentin of Italy. However, even as he extricated his 6ft 6in frame from the sand, he was gesturing to the coaching staff in the stand for corroboration of what he felt he had not got right.

Tomlinson, who added efforts of 8.16 and, finally, 8.14, will make it his business to view a video recording. "The last jump felt like my best,'' he said. "There was a bit of a headwind, and I think I was well behind the board. If that's the case, it could have been worth around 8.40 metres another time. If I could produce something like that at the European Championships I could get a medal.''

A year ago in Bremen, as a late replacement for the injured Nathan Morgan, Tomlinson earned second place in this competition with a jump of 7.67m. On Saturday he added a full half-metre to that performance. "Same again next year?'' someone suggested. "That would be nice,'' he said, a broad grin breaking out beneath his unruly mop of fair hair. Nice – and perhaps even possible."

While Tomlinson was performing with distinction in his second British appearance, Chris Lambert was rising to a novel challenge in his full international debut.

Named as a late replacement for the hamstrung Jason Gardener as lead-off man in the 4 x 100m relay team, the amiable 21-year-old Harvard politics student ran into the back of the man behind whom he earned a Commonwealth 200m place last weekend, Marlon Devonish, but still managed to force the baton into his hand.

"It was... different,'' said Lambert with a sheepish smile. "It was all my fault,'' Devonish volunteered. "I didn't get out, so the changeover was rubbish.''

Crucially, however, the sprinters did not replicate their disastrous performance in last year's World Championships, getting the baton safely to anchor runner Dwain Chambers, earlier the winner of the individual 100m in a time of 10.04sec which equalled Linford Christie's event record. The team captain rose to the occasions to keep Britain's men in overall contention.