Jackson raises the Olympic stakes with all-comers' record

Colin Jackson continued to impress in his preparations for this summer's Olympic Games by breaking the Australian all-comers' record for the 110 metres hurdles in Melbourne yesterday.

Jackson, the world record-holder, ran 13.24 seconds to shave 0.05sec from the mark set last August. After the race, Jackson declared himself happy with the victory but said there was room for improvement. "I'm not very fluid now but I'm not worried about it," he said.

Jackson is in Australia to prepare for the European season and Atlanta in July. Jackson, whose world record of 12.91sec was set in August 1993, missed out on gold medals at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics. "[I hope] it's third time lucky for me," he said.

At the same meeting, Cathy Freeman ran the quickest 400m by a woman in the past five months and broke her own Australian record by 0.19sec with a time of 49.85sec.

The Finnish shot-putter Mika Halvari, the silver medallist in the 1995 World Championships, has snapped his Achilles tendon in training and will not be able to compete in the European Championships, which start in Stockholm next Friday. The injury could also keep Halvari out of the Olympics.