Olsson springs to victory

Commonwealth triple jump champion Phillips Idowu will be under no illusions how tough it will be to win next month's World Championship title.

Idowu missed Friday night's IAAF Golden League meeting in Paris where Christian Olsson surpassed 17metres on each of his three attempts to demoralise his opponents with a world-class display.

The 27-year-old Swede produced a season's best of 17.56m which saw him easily beat off the challenges of Nelson Evora and Aarik Wilson whose furthest efforts were 17.28m and 16.96m respectively.

Idowu, touted as Britain's best best to pull off a victory in Osaka seven weeks hence, was an absentee in the Stade de France with a back injury.

The setback cost the British winner of the first of the six GL meetings in Oslo three weeks ago the opportunity of continuing to chase the IAAF's million dollar jackpot.

On that occasion he beat his Scandinavian rival into second place, but last night Olsson was in the same inspirational form which saw him beat Jonathan Edwards for the world title on the same runway four years ago.

The Olympic champion said: "This meeting is one of the biggest in the world and this is my third win here.

"I was relaxed but at the same time I had to push myself 110 per cent to jump and to get confidence.

"I am focusing now on the worlds," was the clear message he sent out to Idowu and other contenders for the gold medal.