Athletics: Britain can maintain status quo

Since their Europa Cup victory at Gateshead in 1989, the record of the British men's team reads: second, second, second. With or without Linford Christie, they are likely to finish in the same position again after this weekend, with Russia and Germany providing potentially strong opposition.

The women's team, who surpassed themselves to finish second in Birmingham and hence qualify for last year's World Cup at Crystal Palace, appear to have a harder task this time. The Ukraine, Russia and Germany are all strong, and Belarus could also prove difficult opponents.

As the Britain team management waited here yesterday for an indication of whether Christie felt able to run following his mother's funeral yesterday, they were able to reflect with a sense of security upon the quality of their sprint reserve, Darren Braithwaite, whose 100 metres time of 10.18sec has been bettered by no other European this season save for Christie, and whose best of 20.47sec for 200 metres has been beaten this year only by Vladislav Dologhodin, of the Ukraine, who has done 20.36.

Mark Richardson goes into today's 400 metres in the knowledge that his season's best of 44.92sec is more than a second faster than anyone else's in the field, with Dmitri Kosov, of Russia, the only opponent to have broken 46 seconds this year.

Craig Winrow and Gary Lough will find the going tough in the 800 and 1500m, respectively - Winrow faces Germany's European indoor record holder, Nico Motchebon, and Andrea Giocondi, of Italy, who has run 1.44.85 this season, while Lough's opponents include the Olympic champion, Fermin Cacho, and the world silver medallist, Guiseppe D'Urso.

Both will need to raise their performance to the level they displayed in last year's competition - as will Andy Tulloch, named as a late replacement for the unwell Colin Jackson over the high hurdles.

Britain are likely to gain a good balance of points from the field events, where triple jumper Jonathan Edwards is in British record form - he raised the mark to 17.58m two weeks ago - and Steve Smith and Steve Backley, experienced competitors both, have solid chances of winning in the high jump and javelin, respectively.

Liz McColgan is due to run the 10,000 metres for the first time since the 1992 Olympics tomorrow against a field that includes her old rival, Germany's Uta Pippig. Jacqui Agyepong, who won the 100m hurdles last year, is in the kind of form for a repeat performance, although she faces four other runners of similar standard to herself.

In Sally Gunnell's absence, Louise Fraser has been drafted into a 400m hurdles field that is due to include the world 400 metres champion, Marie- Jose Perec, of France. Perec, who has been working on her hurdling in California, recently ran 56.31sec for the event and today's race will give Gunnell an indication of what she may face later this season.