ATHLETICS: Greene sets record target

MAURICE GREENE, who smashed the world 100 metres record last month, believes he can break it again before the season is out - and he sees no reason why it should not happen at tonight's Lausanne grand prix on a renowned sprinter's track.

"Another record?" asked Greene, who took 0.05sec off the mark set by Donovan Bailey in 1996 when he ran 9.79sec in Athens. "Why not? The world record in Athens was only a step in my career. I've already set myself a new goal: to cross the line in 9.76. And once I achieve that I will try to improve on it."

On the same surface where his fellow American, Leroy Burrell, lowered the 100m record to 9.85sec five years ago, Greene will line up against the same high-quality field that competed in Athens, including the world 200m champion, Ato Boldon, the quadruple Olympic silver medallist Frankie Fredericks, and Bruny Surin, the former world indoor 60m champion.

Whether Greene can break his outstanding record is open to question, but it will be a surprise if he fails to make it three successive wins at the meeting.

Britain's leading hope in the 400m this season, Mark Richardson, will have a chance to measure his progress against the man still acknowledged as the premier one-lap runner, Michael Johnson. The American world and Olympic champion will start his European season here after recovering from a muscle strain which forced him to withdraw from last weekend's US championships.

Elsewhere, Jonathan Edwards, Britain's world triple-jump record-holder, seeks to avoid a third successive defeat, something he has not experienced for more than four years.

In the women's 100m, the world champion, Marion Jones, faces Ekaterina Thanou, of Greece, who has recorded the world's two fastest times this year of 10.91 and 10.92.