OLYMPIAN Jared Deacon suffered a rare 400m defeat at the hands of an "unknown" 17-year-old African at the North-East Track and Field Championships.

The 28-year-old Tynesider - a Commonwealth Games and European Championships 400m relay gold medallist who represented Great Britain in the Sydney Olympics - was beaten by former Sudanese international high jumper Rabah Yusuf, who arrived on Teesside only a year ago.

Deacon, hoping to win selection for this year's Olympics in Athens, was surprised by his defeat and even more so by the age of his conqueror.

"He beat me fair and square," admitted Deacon, who lost his first one-lap race of the summer by a metre.

"But I am surprised to hear he is only 17 - if that's the case he must be one of the world's best 17-year-old 400m runners.

"He overtook me on the final bend and technically he ran a perfect race. I tried my best to catch him down the straight but I couldn't."

Deacon, who runs for England in Hungary at the end of the month, added: "It is good to have competition like that and I hope to bring my time down over the next few weeks.

"He beat me this time but I'll make sure he doesn't beat me again."

There is still some mystery surrounding Yusuf, who won the North East Indoor Championships high jump in January using the name of Adam Ali.

His winning time at Gateshead International Stadium of 46.97 secs was only half a second outside Deacon's championship record and spectators were as surprised as Deacon to hear that the Sudanese six-footer was only 17.

But the student at Stockton's Riverside College, who now competes for Border Harriers in Division Two of the British Athletics League, insisted: "I am 17 years old.

"I was an international athlete in the Sudan before I came here and I have won medals in the African Championships.

"I am not surprised to have beaten Jared Deacon because I know I can run fast. But I am a better high jumper."

Yusuf, with a high-jump personal best of 2.10m, had hoped to challenge the senior men's championship record of 2.11m but a troublesome foot injury prevented him from competing.

Wearsider Mark Christie, the UK's top-ranked junior pole vaulter last summer with a clearance of 5.11m, set a new championship record of 4.80m in his first competition after undergoing surgery on both knees only four months ago.

Another Teesside-based Sudanese immigrant, Ismael Hassan, was an easy winner of the senior men's 800m, clocking a modest 1 min 56.12 secs.

There were eight new records on the second day of the championships, with Middlesbrough Mandale's Yusuf Aliu completing a double record-breaking performance, adding the under-15 200m title to his 100m crown with a time of 23.02 secs, despite running into a -1.2m headwind.

* Stockton's Chris Tomlinson made a solid start to his summer season by winning the long jump in Limassol last night with a leap of 7.99m.

The British indoor and outdoor record holder's winning clearance at the Cyprus meeting came in the fifth round.

Tomlinson also had a clearance of 8.10m disallowed.

Last year's World Indoor finalist said: ''It has told me I am in good shape even though I was jumping off 18 strides.''

The Teessider, who has been at the Norwich Union Athens preparation camp in nearby Pathos for the last couple of weeks, added: ''I just need a couple more weeks' training to improve my technical approach.

''I hope with a bit of fine tuning I'll be jumping 8.30m regularly."