holder Jonathan Edwards, both failed to cash in on a bumper prize offer as they performed well below their best at a potentially lucrative meet in Brussels, Belgium last night.

With $25,000 and a new sports car on offer for any athlete who could break a world record, neither Wellman nor Edwards could get close to the mark of 18.29 metres which the Englishman set at the recent World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Edwards won the event with a modest jump of 17.60 metres while Wellman, silver medallist at Gothenburg, could manage only 17.27 metres for third place. The pair were separated by Cuba's Yoelvis Quesada (17.28) who missed out on a World championship medal.

Worlds bronze medallist Jerome Romain of Dominica was fourth last night with a best of 17.26 metres.

Wellman's jump was well short of the 17.62m which earned him silver in Sweden and shy of the 17.72m he leapt in winning gold at the World Indoor Championships in Barcelona, Spain earlier this year.

Last night's meet will be best remembered for Mozambique's Maria Mutola who earned some financial consolation for her bitterly disappointing world championships when she broke the women's 1,000 metres world record.

The 1993 world champion, who was disqualified in the semi-finals of the women's 800 metres at the Gothenburg championships after running out of lane, picked up prizes worth $50,000 with a run of two minutes 29.34 seconds.

On a mild evening which was perfect for distance running, the 22-year-old shaved 1.33 seconds off the previous best of 2:30.67 set by former East Germany's Christine Wachtel in Berlin in August 1990.

The record was the highlight of some superb middle-distance running at the meeting which also saw another convincing 100 metres victory from Britain's Olympic champion Linford Christie, who has also bounced back from a disappointing world championships.

Kenyan Moses Kiptanui, who became the first man to break eight minutes for the 3,000 metres steeplechase at last week's Zurich meeting, ran another remarkable race in 7:59.52, desperately close to his world record of 7:59.18.

It was a superb performance just nine days after his record. But the Kenyan complained he had run an untidy last lap over the barriers.

"Every jump cost me an extra second. I lost the new world record in the last lap,'' Kiptanui said. "But this is the second fastest time ever so I am happy with it.'' Algeria's multi-talented Noureddine Morceli ran the second fastest 3,000 metres of the season in 7:27.50 but could not threaten his own record of 7:25.11.

Christie, whose world championship campaign was destroyed by a hamstring injury, defeated Canadian world champion Donovan Bailey for the second time in 10 days in a 100 metres win which was as crucial to his bank balance as his pride.

The 35-year-old Christie, who also beat Bailey in Zurich, produced another powerful display in 10.08 seconds. Bailey came home fifth in 10.22.

The result proved the veteran was still a major force despite missing out on the most important title of the season.