He equalled it and then beat it in March 1994, and then lowered it again in February.Four British records were also broken in one of the most memorable finals session seen at a national championships.Ian Wilson took 6.76sec off the British 1500m record in 14min 40.69sec, Neil Willey the claimed the 50m backstroke record in 24.88sec, and Lucy Findley broke the women’s 400m individual medley mark in 4:40.95sec in being beaten in the final by Hana Cerna of the Czech Republic.James Hickman continued the record-breaking in the evening’s heats by setting a British 200m butterfly best of 1min 56.37sec.. Hockey

The game moves indoors today at the start of the mid-season break with tournaments in the Midlands and at Aldenham School, writes Bill Colwill.
At Aldenham, National Champions Old Loughtonians will be defending their East League title. The one disappointment is that the 50m butterfly is not an Olympic event. Foster’s consolation yesterday came in the form of a pounds 5,000 bonus, on offer for a world record at this week’s event.Foster first claimed the world record in February 1993. Swimming

Mark Foster broke the world short-course 50 metres butterfly record for the fourth time in two and a half years at Sheffield yesterday to confirm that he is in a class of his own in the discipline.
Foster romped through the final of the Uncle Ben’s Winter Challenge in 23.45sec, to cut a tenth of a second off the mark he had set in the same Ponds Forge pool earlier this year. “He feels that because he is Brian Lara he should be allowed to do certain things.”The board were discussing was Lara’s late withdrawal from the team currently in Australia after he had been fined 10 per cent of his fee for abandoning last summer’s tour of England after the fourth Test.Only Short’s persuasion brought him back, Lara gaining the impression that the matter had thus been settled.

When he was fined for it almost three months after the tour, he opted out of the team for Australia two days before its departure and refused to change his mind inspite of Short’s pleadings.Alloy Lequay, head of the Trinidad and Tobago board that has staunchly supported its most famous son of the soil in the controversy, said he was carrying a plan to the meeting that he felt would be to the satisfaction of “nearly everybody”.He gave no hint of what it contained and it needed to be cleverly conceived to have achieved its objective.. While the CBC president, Peter Short, said he had “every hope and expectation” that Lara would be with the West Indies for the World Cup in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka next February and March, Jamaica’s representative, Maurice Foster, made it plain he did not share such sentiments.”I certainly feel, like many people, that Brian Lara is acting like a spoiled brat,” Foster, the former West Indies Test batsman, said. TONY COZIER

reports from Bridgetown, Barbados
The West Indies Cricket Board of Control spent over seven hours yesterday trying to find a way back into their team for their most valuable player, Brian Lara. Up to late evening it was still not clear whether they had as officals worked on what was bound to be a delicate press statement.The difficulties facing the splintered organisation over its latest and perhaps gravest crisis were emphasised in contrasting statements from members just before the meeting.

“The way we are playing, we just have to work a bit harder.”All players in the triangular tournament – which also features Australia – are wearing numbers on their shirts for the first time in a match in Australia to help identification.. Batting first after losing the toss, Richie Richardson’s side, who were bowled out for 92 by the Australian Academy earlier this week, struggled again with the bat, labouring to a disappointing 160 for 8 from their allotted 50 overs.Sri Lanka recovered from losing their opener, Roshan Mahanama, to the first ball of the innings and replied with a disciplined 161 for 6, based largely on a fine innings of 46 from 61 balls by Aravinda de Silva, who scored more freely than any other batsman on a slow, turning wicket.”We are still struggling,” Richardson, the West Indies captain, said. He argued that the condition of the ball in question at the time of the incident could not be judged by the ICC because it sustained further wear and tear during the innings. “If there is no evidence then we are not guilty,” he said.West Indies, distracted by the dispute surrounding absent batsman Brian Lara and beset by poor form, gave a lacklustre performance as their fellow tourists cruised to victory with five overs to spare at the Adelaide Oval. They added to the woes of the West Indies yesterday by defeating them in the opening fixture in the World Series and they are to seek an official apology after claiming they were not guilty of ball tampering during the first Test against Australia in Perth last week.Thilanga Sumathipala, the vice-president of the Board of Control for in Sri Lanka, said his players had been wrongly found to have altered the condition of the ball.”This has done irreparable damage to Sri Lankan cricket,” he said “We know 100 per cent that the players did not do this. Before we leave Australia someone must clear us.”Sumathipala criticised Graham Dowling, the match referee, over his handling of the incident and said that the umpires had made a mistake in not replacing the ball when they first noticed the damage. He pitched to a yard on the 16th, two-putted the 524-yard 17th and saw his sand-wedge to the last finish two feet from the flag.n David Feherty, a Ryder Cup player only four years ago, has said he is quitting the game.