Sonia forced to settle for third place

SONIA O’SULLIVAN put in a spirited finish in the 3000m in Zurich last night and almost snatched second place from Russia’s Tatyana Tomashova, but neither were a match for winner Berhane Adere.

Ethiopia’s world indoor record holder for the distance produced a scorching last lap to win in 8:32.76.

Tomashova held off O’Sullivan by 0.22secs in a time of 8:33.40 - both athletes producing season’s best performances.

Dwain Chambers has learned a lot about how fortunes can change in recent weeks and the newly-crowned European 100 metres champion continued his education.

In a race won by world silver medallist Tim Montgomery in 9.98 seconds ahead of fellow American Coby Miller, who clocked 10 seconds dead, Chambers produced a worthy effort to clinch third place in 10.05secs.

But the European number one, who ran a personal best 9.96secs to take the continental title in Munich’s Olympic Stadium, had reduced his time by 0.02secs in his preliminary heat in Zurich.

But a lot can happen between a qualifying race and the one hour and 20 minutes which elapsed before the final.

The wait did not dampen the spirits of a vocal 22,000 capacity crowd who had seen Montgomery finish ahead of Chambers in a season’s best 9.93secs.

With Kim Collins, who carried off the Commonwealth 100m medal and celebrated his unexpected success for St Kitts & Nevis when Chambers was lying on the track in Manchester suffering from cramps, also smashing his national record with a time of 9.98secs, an exciting final was on the cards.

There was also world record holder Maurice Greene to be considered, although the ‘‘Kansas Cannonball’’ managed only third place in his heat.

But the Olympic champion and his rivals all know only finals count.

The wind which blew at a speed of 1.6 metres-per-second behind the three sub-10 performers in the heats had turned around before the final where it was in their faces at a rate of 1.3m/s.

It was still anybody’s race until in the final quarter the smaller figure of Montgomery burst ahead to win his first IAAF Golden League of the meeting.

Runner-up Miller, who broke a leg in last year’s US indoor trials, was the joker in the pack with his shock second place.

Jonathan Edwards as the Olympic triple jump gold medallist returned to winning ways after losing his European title to Christian Olsson.

Victory went to Ana Guevara, the Mexican lowering her national record to 49.16secs.

Guevara also kept her hopes alive of winning the Golden jackpot of 50 kilograms of gold bars by maintaining a clean sheet in all seven meetings.

Welshman Matt Elias had an encouraging performance in the 400m hurdles, placing second in the ‘B’ race in a time of 49.18secs.

Former European champion Pawel Januszewski of Poland took the honours in 48.65secs, with Tony Borsumato finishing third with a time of 49.42secs.