LINFORD CHRISTIE, who once claimed he could fill any British stadium, was faced with rows and rows of empty seats as he began his farewell tour with a victory at Crystal Palace yesterday.

These Performance Games were intended as a fly past for Christie and Britain's returning Olympic medalists, a moment for dipping wings and looping the loop before the appreciative fans. But a crowd of just 5,000 turned out in the rain to give the former Olympic and world 100 metres champion a London goodbye.

Christie won his 150 metre race in 15.08 seconds. Defeat would have been unthinkable and the opposition was ordered accordingly. All five of Britain's individual medallists were on display. They were upstaged by an Olympian who did more than go through the motions. Ashia Hansen grabbed what little glory there was by breaking her own Commonwealth and British triple jump record with an outstanding leap of 14.67 metres.

As Hansen was travelling back from the United States last week she was being promoted in the Olympic results from fifth to fourth after the woman immediately ahead of her, Bulgaria's Iva Prandzheva, was disqualified for testing positive for anabolic steroids.

Hurdler Angela Thorp, third yesterday behind the Jamaicans Dionne Rose and Gillian Russell, was another athlete entitled to have mixed feelings about her Atlanta experience. She set a new UK record of 12.80 seconds, but was denied a place in the Olympic final. Russian Natalya Shekhodanova, who beat her in the semi final, subsequently also failed a drugs test and has been suspended for four years.

While the curtain is coming down on the career of one British Olympic legend, another has decided to delay her call. Tessa Sanderson, who initially came a back just to qualify for a record sixth Olympic Games, announced after finishing second in the javelin with a throw of 61.24 metres that she intends to hang around for the world championships. "Us 40 year olds don't just lay down and die," she said.

. Ireland's Susan Smith showed that she did not leave her best running in Atlanta by bouncing back at Crystal Palace with a 400 metre hurdles run of 54.99 seconds. The time was just six hundredths of a second shy of the Irish record she notched up in the Olympic semi finals. However, she still had to settle for second behind Germany's Heike Meissner, who just edged out Smith in the final metres to stop the clock at 54.94 secs.

Meissner was one of the athletes who finished ahead of Smith in the Atlanta semi final, just depriving her of what would have been an historic place in the 400 metres hurdles final.

British based Mark Mandy was the only other Irish athlete in action. The high jumper seemed to be suffering from an Olympic hangover and could only clear 2.15 metres, for sixth place.