Lewis-Francis Serves Notice

On an evening when Sebastian Coe was voted the greatest Bislett hero of all time by the Norwegian public, Birchfield's Mark Lewis-Francis made his mark in a stadium synonymous with British success.

The 20-year-old beat Dwain Chambers for the second time this summer to win the 100 metres in the opening Golden League meeting of 2003 in what is beginning to appear an inexorable rise towards the top of world sprinting.

Lewis-Francis is beginning to fulfil the prophesies made for him by the likes of the 1996 Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Donovan Bailey and John Smith, coach to the current Olympic champion Maurice Greene.

The victories are starting to stack up next to his name. This was his fifth in succession and he remains unbeaten over 100m this year. His time of 10.12sec was nothing special but then that is becoming his trademark, running only as fast as necessary to win after pulling away from Chambers in the final 30m.

Lewis-Francis displayed a sense of history and celebrated at adding his name to a British roll of honour which includes Coe, Steve Cram and David Moorcroft, all world record breakers here and all here for the last meeting before the stadium is bulldozed and rebuilt.

"That's why my smile is here and that's why it's going to stay here," said Lewis-Francis. "I'm still on cloud nine - I'm going to pinch myself to make sure it's real."

He will be hoping victory has the same kind of effect it had on Chambers, who said beating Greene in this corresponding event 12 months ago marked the turning point of his career. It launched an incredible few weeks which saw Chambers lift the European title and equal Linford Christie's continental record of 9.87.

Chambers has clearly not wintered as well as Lewis- Francis. Having lost time to an ankle injury when he fell down the stairs, his problems were compounded on the eve of this race when he was briefly knocked unconscious by a football. To his credit he refused to offer it as an excuse.

"I'm taking a few more hits than I bargained for," said Chambers. "It's not a nice feeling. He was there and kept on being there. I don't know what happened."

Lewis-Francis insists he does not want to put pressure on himself but that will be hard to avoid if he beats the world record holder Tim Montgomery in the Norwich Union International between Britain, the US and Russia at Scotstoun in Glasgow tomorrow.

"I'm going to get stronger with every race," said Lewis-Francis. "Last year I wanted to run nine seconds in every race. This year I'm keeping it real."

There were no world records to provide the fitting send-off for Bislett, which has seen 62 during its 79-year history, although Ethiopia's Berhane Adere did run 14min 29.32sec for the second fastest 5,000m in history.

There was also an outstanding performance in the triple jump from Cuban-born Yamile Aldama, who wants to compete for Britain in the Athens Olympics next year. She leapt even further clear of her rivals at the top of the world rankings with a jump of 15.11 metres.

It is unlikely, however, to persuade the Home Office to rush through her application, especially in the light of this week's revelation that her Scottish-born husband is serving 15 years in Wormwood Scrubs for heroin trafficking.

"We are talking to other countries," said Frank Attoh, her London coach. "If one of them comes up with a passport it would be fantastic. I would be very upset if Britain don't grab her."