SUCCESS FOR GREAT BRITAIN & NORTHERN IRELAND Men win – Women are third Edgar, Devonish, relay team – dominate the sprint events “A win is a win and I’m still top of the world” – Idowu Great Britain & Northern Ireland performed above expectation in the last ever Spar European Cup at Annecy in France. The Men’s team won their competition with comparative ease achieving 112 points to the 98 by Poland, 96 by France and 95 by Germany, and the Women’s team came third with 89 points behind Russia on 122 and Ukraine on 108.5 and ahead of Poland 86 and France 81. The high profile established stars missing through competition or other reasons were not really noticed.   The British men dominated the sprints. On the first day Tyrone Edgar set up the path to triumph by winning the 100 metres in 10.20 seconds. “It’s an Olympic year and 2008 is going to be my year. I had it in my mind, seven people weren’t going to win and I didn’t want to be one of them” he explained. The following day team captain Marlon Devonish finished strongly to win the 200 metres in 20.52 seconds. Seemingly out of the picture he dipped to the tape and edged out Anastasios Gousis of Greece. “I stumbled and that made it hard work. My experience definitely helped me. It was a poor race technically but I’ll take the points. I’m very pleased I kept my composure”. The 4 x 100 metres relay team of Christian Malcolm, Tyrone Edgar, Marlon Devonish and Rikki Fifton were perhaps fortune to win in 38. 48 seconds ahead of Poland in 38.61. They were outpaced by the Germans, who, however, were disqualified because one f their runners had stepped out of his lane during a baton change. Nevertheless it was an encouraging performance for the British quartet in the first time that they had run together.  In intense heat Mohammed Farah won the 5,000 metres “going away” in 13:44.07 with Carles Castillejo of Spain, who had been expected to give him a close challenge, way back in second place in 13:57.37. Farah picked up the pace five laps “out” and was never under pressure. Phillips Idowu leaped to the lead in the Triple-jump with 17.29 metres at his second attempt, and increased it to 17.46 in the next round. It was the best jump in the Cup for 11 years. “I wanted a little bit more but a win is a win and I’m still top of the world” he declared. “I reckon I can even put down another metre” – which would put him well ahead of Jonathan Edwards’ current 18.29 metres record set in 1995. Second-placed Colomba Fofana of France jumped 17.21 metres. The women sprinters achieved a consistency of second-place. Emma Ania was perhaps most impressive by running the 100 metres in 11.22 seconds to the 11.17 of winner Yulia Nesterenko of Belarus, the gold-medallist at Athens four years ago. Home-heroine Muriel Hurtis-Hourari was chased home in 200 metres at 23.23 seconds to her own 22.75 by Christine Ohuruogu (coming down from her regular 400 metres, in which Nicola Sanders took first place). The 4 x 100 metres relay team of Anyika Onura, Montell Douglas, Jeanette Kwakye and Emma Ania finished second to the Russians with 42.95 seconds to 42.80. Jade Johnson, who achieved a personal best performance. was out-jumped by Lyudmila Kolchanova in the Long-jump with the Russian winning with 7.04 to 6.81 metres. The winning jump was the longest in the world this year.