Christian Malcolm sped to second place in the 200- metre final at the Norwich Union World Trials and AAAs Championships in Birmingham last night, ensuring his automatic spot in the Great Britain team for the World Championships in Paris next month.

The 24-year-old Newport sprinter was in fine form for a season's best time of 20.39 seconds behind race winner Julian Golding, and later revealed: "I'm glad it's all over."

Malcolm is now looking forward to racing at the British Grand Prix in Crystal Palace on August 8.

He said: "It wasn't an easy weekend. I'm just glad it's all over.

"I can have a couple of days to myself now and chill out.

"Crystal Palace is next but I don't know what I will do after that, or if I'll do anything before that. My coach, Jock Anderson is happy, I'm happy, so we'll take it from there."

Malcolm paid tribute to former training partner Doug Turner, of Newport - a European silver medallist for the 200 metres in 1998 who watched Malcolm, literally, from the stand at Alexander Stadium yesterday.

Malcolm said: "Doug has been helping me out in training with things like weights and strength work.

"I'm going to Paris. I'll have to practise my French now, so I'm really pleased with that.

"It's been a hard weekend for me and it's been very tiring. But the main thing is that I have qualified for the team.

"I'm getting there, I'm slowly getting there."

Malcolm's hopes of emulating his World Championship campaign of two years ago when he doubled up in the sprints at Edmonton were dashed when he finished fifth in the 100 metres in 10.34 seconds.

But the former double World Junior champion was pleased enough with his 200-metre performance.

He said: "Job done. I came here to qualify and that's what I've done.

"I was closing Julian down fast at the end, which shows my strength. I now need to work on my speed.

"Now it's time to concentrate on the World Championships."