The Electronic Telegraph Monday 4 June 2001 Tom Knight IN THE moments after Denise Lewis and Katharine Merry opened their seasons with appearances for their club in a British League match in Birmingham, the contrast between the two could not have been greater. Competing for Birchfield Harriers, the pair enjoyed admirable if unspectacular starts to a summer which will reach its climax at the World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, in August. Lewis finished second in the 100 metres hurdles and shot put, and Merry completed her first lap of the campaign by anchoring the club's 4 x 400m relay team to victory. The setting, inside an Alexander Stadium echoing to the sporadic applause of barely 200 people, was a far cry from the last time they competed outdoors, at the Olympics. But their demeanours afterwards said everything about the effect Sydney had and was still having on their respective careers. Lewis, the Olympic heptathlon champion, must raise herself for another major championship having already achieved the ultimate prize. Merry, meanwhile, who won bronze behind Australia's Cathy Freeman in the 400m, is still hungry for a global title of any sort. Lewis faced the media dressed in her sponsor's latest line in fashionable track wear, sunglasses perched atop a rust-dyed spiky hairdo, reminiscent of David Bowie's first Ziggy incarnation, circa 1972. This was the sport's biggest female icon facing "new goals and fresh problems". As is customary at this stage of the year, she talked of her race against time to get fit, a problem exacerbated by her delay in getting back into training after Sydney. There were Achilles and foot injuries to heal and the demands of the celebrity circuit to deal with. Her time away from the training track included a cameo role, as herself, in a still-to-be-seen TV thriller called The Green-Eyed Monster. There are only eight weeks until she arrives in Edmonton, where her rivals, particularly France's Eunice Barber, will be eager to deprive her of gold. Lewis's injuries meant she missed crucial ground work and she has, so far, avoided high-jumping. She also described her 200m as "iffy". There will be no green-eyed monsters in Canada, just highly motivated athletes who demonstrated impressive form a week ago in the multi-events meeting in Gotzis, Austria. Barber, particularly, looked close to her best after a winter's training in the United States with Bob Kersee, the husband and coach to two-times Olympic champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Lewis said: "I'm happy to be competing again after such a long lay-off. This has blown away the cobwebs. I can breathe a sigh of relief and get the momentum going. Being Olympic champion is the be-all and end-all of anyone's competitive life but there are still things to do. I think I am still hungry. My discipline and motivation are as good as they have ever been." Merry, meanwhile, did not even have to make the point. Her training hardly missed a beat after Sydney. Fresh from her second consecutive injury-free winter in which she broke the British record indoors, the 26-year-old is happy to face her biggest rivals in races in Milan, Athens and Nuremberg over the next fortnight. She said: "I was ecstatic with my bronze medal in Sydney because I'd done all I could but the athlete in me was still disappointed it wasn't silver or gold. I believe I can run very fast and I don't feel threatened by anyone. I believe I can win the world title but so, probably, do nine or 10 other women." Two of Britain's sprinters continued their successful starts to the summer. Mark Lewis-Francis, a Birchfield team-mate of Lewis and Merry, won the 100m in Birmingham in 10.28sec while Dwain Chambers clocked 10.14sec to triumph at a meeting in Greece. Decathlete Dean Macey competed in four events to help his club, Harrow, win the British League Second Division match at Watford. Macey clocked 11.1sec for fourth in the 100m, finished sixth in the shot with 14.52m, third in the discus with 47.41m and ran the second leg in the 4 x 400m. Jonathan Edwards opted for a low-key start at the AAI Games in Bangor, Northern Ireland, where the Olympic champion won the triple jump with a wind-assisted 17.53m. Like Merry, he will compete in Milan on Wednesday. Eamonn Condon www.RunnersGoal.com
