In Briefs — Gebrselassie’s new mark

The race was billed as a head-to-head clash between Gebrselassie and Noureddine Morceli of Algeria but the holder of the world best at 1,500 metres, one mile and 2,000 metres was never in contention and dropped out at the end of the seventh lap.

Philip Mosima of Kenya was second in 8:14.45 and Belgian Mohammed Mourit third in 8:14.88.

Rajeev shines

NAGPUR: City athlete Rajeev Balakrishnan bettered his own personal best in the 100 metres at the Stanford All Comers Athletics Meet to become the first Indian to go under 10.50 seconds.

According to information reaching here, Rajeev, who has clocked 10.50 seconds at Cardinal Qualifier Stanford Track last week, timed 10.48 on last Tuesday and almost broke the Stanford track record of 10.46 seconds. “The track was a bit slow. Hence I could not break that record,” Rajeev opined in a letter faxed to The Indian Express.He won the 100m dash overcoming Americans Lorenzo Hawthorne (10.56s) and Cavin Smith (10.855)

Cricket film

LONDON: The BBC Television is soon to launch a film about cricket, mostly based on off the pitch exploits of English cricketers, mainly in India and the idea has already run into strong criticism of bringing disrepute to the game.

Entitled `Christmas in Calcutta’, the drama which may be aired even on BBC World Service beamed in India, Pakistan, Australia and south-east Asia is a story of an ill-disciplined overseas tour by a fictional English team with a strong doses of the post-game partying, frollicking and affairs.

Blewett slams 121

DERBY: Australia’s captain Mark Taylor suffered another batting failure on Saturday but Greg Blewett hit a timely ton ahead of the first Ashes Test.Taylor, whose place is in jeopardy after a sequence of low scores, made only five on the opening day of the three-day match against Derbyshire.Blewett’s superb 121 spurred the touring side to 362 for six declared and Derbyshire were 68 for one at close.

Easy for Tajiks

HO CHI MINH CITY: Tajikistan rolled to an easy 4-0 victory against a struggling Vietnamese side in World Cup soccer qualifying play today.Vietnam, coming off a loss to China last week, was outplayed by a dominant Tajik squad. The victory improved Tajiks record to 3-0-1. Vietnam remained without a victory at 0-0-4 in the four-nation Group 8 World Cup qualifying tournament.