Larry Achike, Shaftesbury Barnet's 25-year-old Commonwealth triple jump champion, stamped himself as a lively prospect for a medal in the Sydney Olympics in September with a magnificent victory that helped Britain win the European Cup at Gateshead at the weekend.

Achike was in a confident mood after attaining an Olympic standard with 17.14m in Zagreb earlier this month, and, with his third jump, produced a lifetime best leap of 17.31m.

That was too far for his rivals, including Italy's Fabrizio Donato, No 1 in the world this year, who was runner-up with 17.17m.

Achike's jump was the best by a Briton this year, after he got his chance at Gateshead because world record-holder Jonathan Edwards was training in Israel. Edwards, who set the world best of 18.29m when winning the world title in Gothenburg in 1995, could only manage 16.81m in his most recent competition in Rome at the end of last month.

'I was thrilled with my performance, but Jonathan is still favourite for the gold medal,' said Achike.

The Shaftesbury star's next mission is to finish in the first two in the Olympic trials at Birmingham next month and book his flight to Sydney.

Shaftesbury's Anthony Whiteman also played his part in Britain's thrilling triumph by half-a-point from Germany.

Whiteman, who has already clocked an Olympic qualifying time for the 1500m, had a good run over 3,000m when third in 8mins 1secs, behind D Maaziuzi (France), 7min 58.7secs, and V Shabunia (Russia) 7mins 59secs.

Whiteman was plagued by injury last season, and his coach Alan Storrie was pleased with his performance.

Ashia Hansen, Shaftesbury's world women's triple jump indoor record-holder didn't want to risk a recurrence of the ankle injury that troubled her last year, and withdrew from the British women's team.

Her replacement, former British champion Michelle Griffith, from Edgware, was seventh with 13.50m.

Russia's T Lebedeva, who won with 14.98m, has jumped 15.01m this year, and will be a threat to Hansen and the other leading exponents.

Shaftesbury sprinter Shani Anderson ran in the British 4x100m relay team that finished eighth.

The local club's 400m hurdler Natasha Danvers ran a good first leg in the 4x400m relay and helped Britain to third place behind Russia and Germany, guaranteeing them sixth place overall, and survival in the top flight of the European Cup.

In the Schools' International at Wigan, Shaftesbury Barnet's Daniel Lewis (4mins 22.93secs) and Tom Bedford (4mins 24.92secs) were second and third respectively in the boys' intermediate 1500m steeplechase.

The winner, W Harty (Ireland) clocked 4mins 20.72secs.