Ladejo sets out his stall for Atlanta

Du'aine Ladejo of Britain and Grit Breuer from Germany emerged from the final day of the European indoor championships yesterday as serious Olympic medal contenders.

Ladejo, the current outdoor European champion, easily defended the indoor title he won in Paris two years ago with an effortless 46.12 seconds victory in his 400 metres final.

That time was good enough to beat the 46.29 seconds stadium record set by American outdoor world champion Michael Johnson five years ago and gave Ladejo real hopes he could seriously challenge Johnson in Atlanta.

"Beating Johnson's record is the first step to beating the man," he said.

Asked if he thought it would take a lot of steps to beat him, Ladejo replied: "It could be a long walk, yes, but you know what happened to Johnson at the last Olympics.

"I feel as though I could be running low 445 by the summer. There is a lot more in me and I'm ready for the Americans, I've beaten all the Americans I need to beat except Michael Johnson."

Johnson, laid low by food poisoning, failed to qualify for the 200 metres final at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Breuer, returning to a major championship for the first time since the end of her three-year doping ban last August, gave an awe-inspiring performance in the 400 metres final, taking the gold in 50.81 seconds, a time bettered by only seven women indoors.

Breuer, still only 24, is rebuilding her career after being suspended from 1992-95 following her involvement in the controversial doping case with former double world sprint champion Katrin Krabbe and Manuela Derr.

But Breuer showed here that she has lost none of the speed that brought her the European 400 metres title in 1990 and a 400 metres silver medal in the 1991 world championships in Tokyo.

There were two other eye-catching, performances on an otherwise low-key" day at a low-key meeting.

The first came from 20-year-old Roberto Parra of Spain, the European junior champion, who outran a vastly more experienced field to win the 800 metres title in an impressive one minute 47.74 seconds.

And the second came from Alina Astafei of Germany who won the women's high jump title.

Although she took the gold with a relatively modest leap of 1.98 metres, her victory was notable against a background of increasing pressure between officials of her native Romania and her adopted homeland of Germany.

The day before these championships started, Astafei learned that Romanian Olympic officials were still threatening to invoke an Olympic Charter clause that stops athletes competing for an adopted country within three years of gaining citizenship for another country.

The Romanians say they will only waive that rule if Germany pays compensation to them for developing her as a teenager.

"It was not the best build-up for this weekend," said Astafei, the world indoor champion. "And it might not have been the most stylish performance of my career, but at least I won. As for the other problem, it is out of my hands. There is nothing I can do about it, I just hope it is resolved."

Germany emerged as the top nation with four golds, two silvers and two bronze medals, followed by Spain with four golds and a bronze.