ATHLETICS - MITCHELL UPSTAGES TRIO OF OLYMPIC SPRINT CHAMPIONS .
Adrian Warner
BRUSSELS 1996-08-23
American Dennis Mitchell upstaged a trio of past and present Olympic 100 metres champions on Friday with a storming victory at the Brussels grand prix .
Sporting his customary bright green outfit , the U.S. champion clocked 10.03 seconds despite damp conditions to take the scalp of Canada 's reigning Olympic champion Donovan Bailey , 1992 champion Linford Christie of Britain and American 1984 and 1988 champion Carl Lewis .
Mitchell also beat world and Olympic champion Bailey at the most lucrative meeting in the sport in Zurich last week .
The American , who finished fourth at the Atlanta Games , was fast out of his blocks and held off Bailey 's late burst in the final 20 metres before heading off for a lap of celebration .
The Canadian was second in 10.09 with Lewis third in 10.10 , ahead of Atlanta bronze medallist Ato Boldon who clocked 10.12 in fourth .
Christie , competing in what is expected to be his last major international meeting , finished fifth in 10.14 .
Lewis , making a rare appearance in Europe in a sprint race , left the track with a slight limp .
American Olympic high hurdles champion Allen Johnson defied the wet conditions to produce a brilliant 12.92 seconds in the 110 metres race , just 0.01 outside the world record held by Britain 's Colin Jackson .
Johnson ran the same time at the U.S. Olympic trials in Atlanta in June to become the second equal fastest hurdler of all time with American Roger Kingdom .
He seemed to relish the new track at the Brussels meeting , dominating the race from start to finish with a slight wind at his back .
Jackson , the only man to have run faster , could not live with his speed , taking second in 13.24 seconds .
The rain was pelting down when the women 's high hurdlers stepped up for their 100 metres race .
But Sweden 's Olympic high hurdles champion Ludmila Engquist , who crashed out of last week 's meeting in Zurich after hitting a hurdle , also kept her footing perfectly to win in a fast 12.60 seconds .
Olympic silver medallist Brigita Bukovec of Slovenia could finish only fifth in the race in 12.95 .
Jamaican Commonwealth champion Michelle Freeman took second in 12.77 ahead of Cuban Aliuska Lopez .
The Zurich fall cost Engquist a shot at a jackpot of 20 one-kg gold bars which can be won by athletes who clinch their events at all of the Golden Four series in Oslo , Zurich , Brussels and Berlin .
Seven athletes went into Friday 's penultimate meeting of the series with a chance of winning the prize and American men 's 400 metres hurdles champion Derrick Adkins kept his hopes alive in the competition by winning his event in 47.93 .
American Olympic champion Gail Devers clocked a swift 10.84 seconds on her way to victory in the women 's 100 metres , the second fastest time of the season and 0.10 seconds faster than her winning time in Atlanta .
Jamaican veteran Merlene Ottey , who beat Devers in Zurich after just missing out on the gold medal in Atlanta after a photo finish , had to settle for third place in 11.04 .
American world champion Gwen Torrence , the bronze medallist in Atlanta , was second in 11.00 .
It was a costly defeat for Ottey since it threw her out of the race for the Golden Four jackpot .