GWENT'S Christian Malcolm, pictured, celebrated his European Cup call-up by winning both sprints at the Slovak Gold international meeting in Slovakia last night.

Malcolm won the 100m in 10.28 seconds and then reinforced his status as the UK's current leader over 200m by storming home in 20.92sec in Bratislava.

Olympian Nathan Douglas made a dramatic bid for the triple jump spot vacated by the retired Jonathan Edwards in the GB team for the cup meeting in Florence.

Douglas won with a lifetime best of 17.11m, 17cm further than his previous best, with which he won the Olympic Trials and AAA Championships in Manchester last July.

Sarah Claxton, the AAA 100m hurdles champion who is in the GB women's team for their European Cup match in Portugal, lowered her season's best to 13.08sec to take victory.

Sprinter Laura Turner moved to within a hundredth of a second of the UK's current number one Joice Maduaka by winning the 100m in 11.47sec, well ahead of Irish record holder Anna Boyle, who clocked 11.58.

Taneisha Scanlon won the women's triple jump with 13.62m, the second time she has improved the Irish record this season.

l Darren Campbell has revealed his pride at being selected to compete for Great Britain in the Spar European Cup in Florence later this month.

The Olympic sprint relay champion has also been appointed captain of the team as they look to improve on last year's fourth place and reclaim the title they have won four times in eight years from current incumbents Germany.

Campbell said: "To be able to run for Great Britain is probably the most important thing for me. And I appreciate being captain again."

Although the 31-year-old is confident the team can triumph on June 17-19, Campbell will also hope fellow Olympic champion Mark Lewis-Francis can avoid his mistake in last year's 100 metres which ultimately cost the team the title.

The 22-year-old was the pre-race favourite but was disqualified after a false start and the subsequent loss of an expected eight points proved costly.