Manchester: English sprinters Dwain Chambers and Mark Lewis-Francis stage their own Battle of Britain at the Commonwealth Games on Saturday vying for the men's 100m sprint crown.

Chambers starts the favourite having beaten world and Olympic champion Maurice Greene twice in the last few weeks. But the younger Lewis-Francis is seen as the face of the future and he says he will not settle for second best.

"I know that there is a sub 10secs in me," said the 19-year-old after cruising through Friday's heats. "This is my first Commonwealth Games and I want to go home with a medal, that is important to me. My mind is only thinking about the gold."

But Chambers has the experience of big-time events on his side and he knows he has run faster than Lewis-Francis. "The title is more important to me than the time," said Chambers, who looked equally impressive in the early going.

"If I win it in 10.2, I won't care. As long as I get the title. As long as I beat... ah, I ain't saying any more," he added referring to the growing animosity between the two rivals.

The Games athletics programme, which unusually precedes the swimming competition, has already seen two golds awarded.

Local favourite Lorraine Shaw proved a popular winner in the women's hammer, while Kenya's Wilberforce Talel flung himself across the line to win a thrilling four-man sprint conclusion to the men's 10,000m.

Apart from the men's 100m, the day three of the Games on Saturday will see athletics gold medals being awarded in the women's 100m and in the men's discus and 3,000m steeplechase.

With more customary cold, damp conditions replacing the sunshine that marked the first full day of competition, early attention switched away from Manchester to the countryside around the city with the women's and men's cycling time-trials.

There were golds also in diving – women's 3m Springboard and men's 10m Highboard - in synchronised swimming women's duets and in women's team gymnastics.

The English men captured the men's gymnastics title late Friday in an emotional performance which left rivals Canada and Australia gasping. That helped put the hosts second in the medals table after the first full day of competition behind Canada, but ahead of favourites Australia.

However, with the swimming programme still to come in the latter part of the Games, the feeling was that it would take a monumental effort by the English to prevent the Australians from defending their title of the strongest country in the Commonwealth.

Agencies