Athletics /Milan Grand Prix: World 10,000 metres champion Berhane Adere has challenged Britain's Paula Radcliffe to tackle her over the distance in Gateshead as she looks for a quality race ahead of the Olympic Games.
The Ethiopian was speaking in Milan where she failed to set a world record over 5,000m in last night's Grand Prix II meeting.
Adere's manager, Volker Wagner, is still waiting to hear from the organisers of the Gateshead Super Grand Prix event, claiming a clash between the two women would be "a major attraction".
The Ethiopian shrugged off her failed record bid, saying: "That's the last time I will try chasing world records before the Olympics. Now I just want to concentrate on my preparations, but I really do want to race in Gateshead. It comes at a perfect time."
Adere had attempted to beat the seven-year-old mark of 14 minutes 28.09 seconds set by Jiang Bo of China in Shanghai. However, her bid fell flat, despite the perfect conditions, due to the withdrawal by her national federation of Kenyan pacemaker Isabella Ochicha.
"It left me with far too much to do," said Adere, whose winning time was still a fast one of 14:36.92.
Britain's European long jump silver medallist Jade Johnson hopes to have achieved the Olympic qualifying standard before the Gateshead meeting on June 27th.
In her first grand prix of the season, she finished second behind former British international Fiona May, but the contest did not go the way she expected.
While May, silver medallist for Italy at the last two Olympics, won with 6.61m, Johnson struggled until the final round.
Her last attempt of 6.40m clinched the runners-up slot ahead of Latvia's Valentina Gotsova, winner of Monday's Hengelo meeting, by seven centimetres.
"What an awful start I had," said Johnson, who began the competition with two no-jumps and had a further two of six attempts disallowed.
Johnson insisted she will achieve the qualifying standard for Athens, saying: "Have faith in me - I know the standard will come. I've been having trouble with my run-up for the last three weeks and I thought tonight after two no-jumps, I was going to be eliminated.
"But I changed my run-up distance and managed to get in a legal third jump, which kept me in the competition. Don't worry, the qualifier will come. John (Herbert her coach) is working very hard on ironing out the problem."
Britain's 5,000m trio of John Mayock, Chris Davies and Andy Graffin never got near their qualifying figure of 13:21.50 in their race.
Mayock placed seventh in 13:43.07, Davies was 0.45 behind the Yorkshireman while Graffin ran 14:11.08 for 12th position.
MILAN GRAND PRIX - Men - 100m: 1 R Pognon (Fra) 10.30, 2 N Macrozonaris (Can) 10.38, 3 S Collio (Ita) 10.38. 200m: 1 R Pognon (Fra) 20.52, 2 M Torrieri (Ita) 20.67, 3 J Batangdon (Cmr) 20.82. 800m: 1 A Laalou (Mar) 1:44.76, 2 Y Saad Kamel (Brn) 1:45.44, 3 N Wachira (Ken) 1:46.11. 1,500m: 1 I Heshko (Ukr) 3:35.60, 2 D Nyaga (Ken) 3:36.08, 3 A Kaouch (Mor) 3:37.08. 5,000m: 1 A Chebii (Ken) 13:09.70, 2 Y Admassu (Eth) 13:11.34, 3 D Kilel (Ken) 13:11.83. 400m Hurdles: 1 L Herbert (Rsa) 49.47, 2 B Gorban (Rus) 49.60, 3 R Mashchenko (Rus) 50.13. Pole Vault: 1R Mesnil (Fra) 5.70, 2 R Blom (Ned) 5.70, 3 G Gibilisco (Ita) 5.60. Hammer: 1 O Karjalainen (Fin) 79.06m, 2 C Harmse (Rsa) 77.50, 3 P Kozmus (Slo) 76.91.
Women - 100m: 1 K Gevaert (Bel) 11.14, 2 N Mayers (Vin) 11.25, 3 E Ojokolo (Ngr) 11.43. 400m: 1 F Bintou Fall (Sen) 51.60, 2 A Pompey (Guy) 51.79, 3 M Burgher (Jam) 52.53. 5,000m: 1 B Adere (Eth) 14:36.92, 2 M Melkamu (Eth) 15:00.02, 3 E Jepkorir (Ken) 15:12.52. High Jump: 1 T Novoseltseva (Rus) 1.94, 2 I Mykhalchenko (Ukr) 1.92, 3 A Bevilacqua (Ita) 1.87. Long Jump: 1 F May (Ita) 6.61, 2 J Johnson (Brit) 6.40, 3 V Gotovska (Lat) 6.33. Shot Putt: 1 A Legnante (Ita) 18.53, 2 L Manfredi (Fra) 18.47, 3 C Rosa (Ita) 16.71.
