Olympic and world 100 metres champion Maurice Greene and US champion Bernard Williams were upstaged by Nigerian Deji Aliu at the Lausanne Grand Prix on Tuesday.

Aliu outgunned the American pair to win the sprint, following up his victory in Greece last week.

In other events, world champions Allen Johnson, Felix Sanchez and Maria Mutola all lowered 2003 world best times as the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise lived up to its billing as one of the quickest tracks in Europe, despite torrential rain.

The men's 100 metres had been billed as a head-to-head- between Greene and Williams, but Aliu confirmed his good form to win in 10.04 seconds.

Williams pipped Greene for second place with his best time of the season -- 10.10 -- one hundredth of a second ahead of his fellow American, who was making his first appearance in Europe this season.

Greene said: "I am a bit disappointed, but it was hard because of the weather conditions. I know I can do better in my next run."

World record holder Tim Montgomery had also been due to compete, but he withdrew on Monday after returning to America after partner and triple Olympic champion Marion Jones gave birth to a baby boy.

American Johnson took the honours in the 110 metre hurdles in 13.06 to shave 0.08 seconds off Latvian Stanislav Olijars's previous best for the year, set in Oslo last Friday.

Sanchez, the first Dominican Republic athlete to win a world title, continued his domination of the 400 metre hurdles to win in 47.08, while Mozambique's Mutola revelled in the cool conditions to take victory in the 800 metres.

Her time of 1:56.58 was more than a second quicker than the year's previous best -- set by Jolanda Ceplak in Ostrava on June 12.

"Now (the world championships in) Paris is my next aim, and the competition will be very hard," Mutola said.

"I will have to be very fit mentally and physically. But I'm in very good shape already."

Russian Yelena Zadorozhnaya enjoyed an easy success in the women's 3,000 metres, finishing almost 12 seconds clear of Ethiopian Meseret Defar to win in a year's best time of 8" Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, who claimed a long and short course double in the world cross country championships in Lausanne in March, underlined his pedigree on the track with a controlled victory in the men's 5,000 metres. 

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