JOHN Smith, coach of the new world 100 metres record holder Maurice Greene, used to warn his athletes: "You cannot watch Linford Christie before a race. He's just too intimidating."

But the air of supreme, almost arrogant, confidence that Christie exuded on track-side was nowhere to be seen early on Saturday morning as the great man braced himself for the rigours of the Round the Island yacht race.

"If the Good Lord had wanted me to be on water he'd have given me webbed feet; but he wanted me to run so he gave me spikes," joked Britain's greatest ever sprinter as he tentatively set off from the Island Sailing Club.

But just under seven hours later the familiar glow of confidence was back as Christie returned to dry land sporting a beaming smile and proclaiming he had "really enjoyed" his maiden voyage aboard Eddie Warden-Owen's Hoya 60.

Christie, the fastest European ever over 100 metres, had travelled to the Isle of Wight hoping to carve himself another slice of history for his BBC television show Linford's Record Breakers. But, alas, it was doomed to failure.

Inappropriate wind conditions ensured that Warden-Owen's yacht was never in with a realistic chance of beating Hoya Longobarda's 1996 mark of five hours, 12 minutes and three seconds for the fastest monohull to complete the 50 nautical mile race anticlockwise around the island.

But Christie, a born winner, was quick to point out that Hoya 60 had been the first mono-hull across the line - and that he had been the one doing the steering!

"I steered for the last 30 minutes just like Popeye the sailor man!" he grinned. "We may not have broken the record, but winning stays with you forever and that's what it's all about."

For a man whose only previous experience of the high seas had been on a dinghy and a fishing boat, Christie quickly adapted to life as a crew member on the hulking, 60-foot yacht.

"I did a bit of everything out there - and that's what really impressed me, the way that everyone mucked in and did their bit," he said. "I expected it to be hard work although it did surprise me how dependent the boats are on the wind and the weather conditions."

Asked whether he would take to the seas again, Jamaican-born Christie smiled: "Definitely - but the only way I'd become a sailor is in the Caribbean."

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