BYDGOSZCZ, Poland, 20 June 2004 — Britain’s Olympic sprint hope Mark Lewis-Francis was disqualified from the 100 meters at the European Cup here yesterday while Mehdi Baala of France showed his form for Athens by easing home in the 1,500m.

Lewis-Francis was ruled out after making two false starts, allowing Lukasz Chyla of Poland to win in a modest 10.42sec into a strong headwind.

The 21-year-old Briton made amends by anchoring the British quartet to victory in the 4x100m relay with a time of 38.67.

World championships silver medalist Baala held off Commonwealth champion Michael East of Britain in the 1,500m to win in a time of 3min 49.13sec while Russia’s 800m specialist Youri Borzakovskiy finished third in a rare appearance at the metric mile.

Britain took maximum points in this two-day team competition thanks to victory for Chris Rawlinson in the 400m hurdles and towering shot putter Carl Myerscough in his event with a throw of 20.85m.

There was bad news for British triple jumper Ashia Hansen who was carried from the sandpit with what appeared to be a knee injury after collapsing in agony on her first jump.

Hansen finished eighth and last in a competition won by Russia’s Anna Pyatykh, in a 2004 world-leading distance of 14.85 meters.

French women’s sprinter Christine Arron was a clear winner of the 100m in 11.23sec.

Britain were leading the men’s competition by 5.5 points from Poland at the end of the first day with Russia ahead of France by 23 points in the women’s standings.World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe is running her first track race for almost two years when she competes in the 5,000m for Britain today.

Little-Known Bulgarian Runs Fastest Women’s 100m for Four Years

In Plovdiv, Bulgaria, little-known Bulgarian sprinter Ivet Lalova ran the fastest women’s 100 meters time for four years with a clocking of 10.77sec in the European Cup first division meeting yesterday.

Lalova, 20, benefited from a slight legal following wind of 0.7m s as she recorded a time just two hundredths of a second slower than Marion Jones ran to win the Olympic 100m title in Sydney in 2000.

The time is second in Europe only to Christine Arron of France’s continental record of 10.73sec from 1998.

The women’s world 100m record is held by the late Florence Griffith-Joyner with a time of 10.49sec set in 1988.