Edwards, who recorded 17.60m to win at a meeting in Samara earlier this month, knows that if he can get his technique right on what may be an unpredictable surface then victory should be his for the taking in Portugal.Tomorrow's competition will see him renew rivalry with the three men who finished directly behind him in Sydney - Cubans Yoel Garcia, who took silver, and Yoeldi Quesada, and Russia's bronze medallist Denis Kapustin.In the men's 60m, many eyes will be trained anxiously on another local runner in Mark Lewis-Francis, who is still seeking a world indoor qualifying time of 6.70sec. The 18-year-old world junior 100m champion finished last in Stockholm on Thursday night, in 6.73sec, one place behind Christian Malcolm, the European indoor 200m champion.While Malcolm will seek to confirm his selection over the longer distance tomorrow as he races against the trial winner Allyn Condon, he will also contest a short sprint, where a second place alongside John Skeete is up for grabs. However, there may yet be hope for both young sprinters, given that Skeete has withdrawn from all competition before Lisbon because of a back injury.Edwards is not the only Olympic champion on show. Kenya's Noah Ngeny, the surprise winner of the 1500m in Sydney, runs for the first time at the NIA.. Birmingham Bullets launch their campaign in the North European League Challenge Cup in Norway tonight, with growing concern over an injury to their leading scorer and All Star forward Brant Bailey. Birmingham Bullets launch their campaign in the North European League Challenge Cup in Norway tonight, with growing concern over an injury to their leading scorer and All Star forward Brant Bailey. The 6ft 7in player from Wisconsin broke his right kneecap playing American football in high school and the old injury is flaring up under the demands of the Bullets' schedule.Birmingham are hoping the Challenge Cup will provide a route to next season's NEBL.

They play Wurzburg from Germany tonight, Tallinn of Estonia tomorrow and the hosts Bergen on Monday, before returning for a Championship Southern Conference fixture with Thames Valley Tigers on Wednesday.Last night they were playing Sheffield Sharks, and the Bullets coach, Lance Randall said: "Brant's a tough kid, but he's in real pain. The injury would be bad enough at any time, but with this schedule it's going to be hard."Bailey produced a well-below- par performance in Sunday's defeat at Leicester Riders, 24 hours after they lost at home to Newcastle Eagles.Randall said: "Brant was playing in a lot of pain and frankly we didn't realise how much pain. The knee was swollen with internal bruising and he's not been able to train all week. We'll have our physio with us in Norway and Brant will have to take it game by game."London Towers, who are close to qualifying for the quarter-finals of this season's NEBL, have the chance of avenging their elimination from the Uni-ball Trophy quarterfinals when they face Sheffield at Crystal Palace tonight.* The Washington Wizards guard Mitch Richmond became the 26th player in NBA history to score 20,000 points when he hit a 16-foot shot in the second quarter of the Wizards' 102-78 defeat to San Antonio on Thursday night.. Paul Dover found himself unmarked at the top of the circle to score a fifth-minute goal which gave Old Loughtonians the narrowest of 1-0 wins against Marathon, the Croatian champions from Zagreb, in their opening game in the European Indoor Club Championship here yesterday.

Paul Dover found himself unmarked at the top of the circle to score a fifth-minute goal which gave Old Loughtonians the narrowest of 1-0 wins against Marathon, the Croatian champions from Zagreb, in their opening game in the European Indoor Club Championship here yesterday. In a game of missed chances and fine goalkeeping the Old Boys held on to their precarious lead thanks to the experienced goalkeeping of Howie Ford and some timely tackling from Ian Morrison.Dundee Wanderers' 8-6 entertaining victory against Espinho from Portugal was in complete contrast to the English game, with hat-tricks from Niall Scott and Paul Dailly keeping the Scots in the lead, despite a great fight-back by the Portuguese.The second encounter, featuring the the English and Scottish champions, is likely to decide the pool winners. In the second pool there was a surprise defeat for the Dutch champions SCHC, who went down 4-7 to Vienna.. Wayne Gretzky is now officially back in the National Hockey League after the oft-delayed sale of the Phoenix Coyotes was finalised on Thursday. Wayne Gretzky is now officially back in the National Hockey League after the oft-delayed sale of the Phoenix Coyotes was finalised on Thursday. The $87m (£60m) sale to a group headed by the real estate developer Steve Ellman, and including Gretzky as a minority investor, was delayed by financing problems.Gretzky, the leading scorer in the history of the NHL, is expected to take over immediately as the Coyotes' director of hockey operations. They have not won a play-off series since 1987, when they were based in Winnipeg.The NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said: "We look forward to working closely with Steve and Wayne and the city of Scottsdale on the construction of a new, state-of-the-art arena for the Coyotes and the people of Arizona."The Ellman Group has plans for a $535m real estate project in Los Arcos, Arizona, that includes a new arena. The Coyotes play in America West Arena, which was built primarily for basketball..