among world class company in Gateshead, England, yesterday.

But he was left under no illusion about how difficult it will be to win a medal at the upcoming World Athletic Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, now less than a month away.

Wellman took third place yesterday with a jump of just 16.97 metres (55 feet, 81 inches) -- well short of his best and the first time since March this year that he's failed to go over 17 metres.

And he could only look on in awe as, for the second week in succession, Britain's red-hot Jonathan Edwards continued to rewrite the record books.

Edwards, who Wellman has beaten on several previous occasions, produced the longest triple jump in history last weekend and yesterday, competing in front of his home crowd, leapt 18.03 metres (59 feet, 5 inches) -- the longest jump ever seen in Britain.

But, as at the European Cup in Lille last weekend, he was denied a world record because a tailwind of 2.9 metres per second was regarded as excessive.

The wind had dropped for his next effort and he equalled his own British record of 17.72 metres before improving it with another of 17.74.

Edwards, 29, leapt an astonishing 18.43 and 18.39 metres on his second and fourth efforts in France last Sunday but he had an excessive tailwind in both cases, preventing him from breaking American Willie Banks' 10-year-old world record of 17.97.

Wellman, who won the gold medal at the World Indoor Games in Barcelona, Spain, in March with a jump of 17.51 metres (57 feet, 51 inches), recorded his best-ever just last month when he cleared 17.79 metres (58 feet, three inches) in Madrid, but that too was wind-assisted.

He couldn't reproduce that form yesterday and eventually had to settle for third with second place going to another Brit, Fred Ayepong who jumped 17.24 metres.

Cuban Yoelvis Quesada with whom Wellman has regularly tussled this season, wasn't competing in England. With world number one Mike Conley of the US having been absent for much of this season, the World Championships, which begin in Gothenburg on August 5, appear to be shaping up as a battle between Edwards, Quesada, Ayepong and Wellman -- with Edwards now a clear favourite.

Following yesterday's meet, Wellman couldn't be contacted for comment. But Edwards told Associated Press: "I really thought I got the world record today.

"When you're out jumping, you can feel the wind and I didn't think it was that strong. I was a bit disappointed.

"I really didn't know how well I was going to jump. To jump 18 metres again is unbelievable. All of a sudden my triple jump world has turned upside down.''