LONDON: Sprinter Linford Christie, captain of the British team for the past eight years, will lead the team for the last time at next month's European Cup in Munich.

The June 21-22 meet will mark the final international appearance for Britain of the former World and Olympic 100-metre champion.

Christie has captained Britain at every European Cup and both Olympic Games since 1989. He has a record 11 individual victories in the European Cup's 100 and 200-meter events. He will compete in selected Grand Prix meets before retiring at the end of the season. He says he has no intention of running at the World championships in Athens in August.

Gremio grab Copa

RIO DE JANEIRO: Gremio added the Copa Brasil to their list of titles, scoring the decisive goal ten minutes from time as they beat Flamengo in a dramatic final.

Midfielder Carlos Miguel flicked the ball in from close range in the 80th minute to give Gremio a 2-2 draw away to Flamengo in the second leg of the final in Rio de Janeiro.

Gremio won the tie on away goals after a 0-0 draw in Tuesday's first leg.It was the third time Gremio have won the competition since it started in 1989.

Asprilla header

BOGOTA: Colombian striker Faustino Asprilla has had another run with the law, authorities said yesterday.

Colonel Jairo Salcedo, chief of police in Tulua -- Asprilla's home town in Southwest Colombia, said the 27-year-old Newcastle forward and star of Colombia's national team, head-butted a policeman during a dispute in the local soccer stadium during a concert last Saturday.

``Asprilla hit a policeman with his head in the Tulua Stadium while he was being removed from the place for verbally abusing members of the police,'' Salcedo said over the phone. He did not elaborate but said the policeman, who nearly lost a tooth from the blow dealt by Asprilla, had filed a formal complaint.

Russian Govt wins

MOSCOW: Russia's government, often at loggerheads with the communist-dominated parliament, has scored a victory over the legislature not in the political arena, but on the soccer pitch.

On the eve of a crucial vote in the State Duma -- lower house of parliament on the cabinet's planned spending cuts, the government soccer team beat parliament's squad last night 2-0, Interfax News Agency said.

Interfax did not say who scored and gave no team line-up but it quoted one ministerial team member as joking that the fate of the government's spending cuts had rested on the outcome of the tie.

Samaranch rapped

SYDNEY: Sydney's top politicians today told Juan Antonio Samaranch to mind his own business after complaints by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief over a proposed city hotel bed tax to help fund the 2000 Games.

New South Wales premier Bob Carr, whose State government is funding much of the massive construction costs involved in staging the Sydney Games, said the bed tax was a local issue and had nothing to do with the IOC.

``Mr Samaranch runs the IOC. By all accounts he does an exemplary job,'' Carr told reporters. ``But we're building the Olympics. We're building the facilities and we're entitled to say to the hotels in the central business district: ``You'll make a contribution.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.