DOUBLE Olympic champion Svetlana Masterkova cashed in on her remarkable come back with a world mile record, a handsome cheque and a gold bar at Zurich last night.

Masterkova, who returned to competition this season after a three year maternity break to win the 800 and 1,500 metres at the Atlanta Games, slashed 3.05[ seconds off the previous world best at athletics' most lucrative meeting.

Remarkably, it was the Russian's first mile race. In addition to her appearance fee, likely to be. around 30,000, the record off four minutes 12.56 seconds earned Masterkova a bonus of $50,000 plus one kilo of gold. The previous best of 4:15.61 was set by Paula Ivan of Romania in Nice in July 1989.

Masterkova's blistering run was the highlight of a meeting which saw defeats for Canadian Olympic 100 metres champion Donovan Bailey and several other Atlanta gold medallists.

Bailey lost out in a tight finish to American Dennis Mitchell who just missed out on a medal in Atlanta. Mitchell clocked 10.04 seconds ahead of Bailey who ran 10.06, the same time as third placed Linford Christie, the 1992 Olympic champion.

France's Marie Jose Perec, 200 and 400 Olympic champion, was well below her best as she finished fifth in the shorter race behind Nigerian Mary Onyali. Onyali clocked 22.07 to equal the fastest time for the season recorded by Perec.

Olympic champion Ludmila Engquist crashed out of the women's high hurdles after hitting the fourth hurdle while men's Olympic high hurdles gold medal list Allen Johnson had to settle for second place behind fellow American Jack Pierce, who clocked 13.21 seconds.

The attempt on the men's 5,000 metres world record at the end of the meeting was unsuccessful but the packed arena was treated to a superb race between 20 year old Kehyan Daniel Komen and world record holder Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia. Komen, who ran the second fastest 3,000 metres in Monaco at the weekend, won an intense battle with Gebreselassie over the last two laps to become the second fastest 5,000 metres runner in history. He clocked 12 minutes 45.09 seconds.

Gebreselassie, who set the world record of 12:44.39 on the same Zurich track last year, ran 12:52.70.

One of the biggest roars of the night came for veteran sprinter Merlene Ottey, who lost out to Gail Devers after a photo finish in Atlanta. She gained some consolation for that tight defeat when she beat the American in the 100 metres, finishing in 10.95 seconds.