Mark Lewis-Francis will find out tomorrow whether he will be fit to continue his preparations for the World Championships by running in the London Grand Prix in a week's time.

The Birchfield Harrier's immediate future has been clouded by a damaged hamstring sustained during his failed bid to become the AAAs champion at the Manchester Regional Arena last Sunday.

Lewis-Francis had to be helped from the track shortly after he allowed Jason Gardener to beat him to the line and was immediately pessimistic about his chances of recovering in time for next month's championships in Helsinki.

But having had treatment from UK Athletics doctor, Bruce Hamilton, and a scan on the injury on Tuesday, the 22-year-old is not just hopeful of making it to Finland, but has a good chance of meeting the cream of world sprinting at Crystal Palace on July 22.

His coach Steve Platt said: "We will find out about Crystal Palace for definite on Friday.

"I don't think it's looking too bad. It is not troubling him at the moment but then he is only running at 40 per cent."

But even that figure has to be good news for the Olympic relay champion who looked as though he was going to be out for a long time after he hobbled off the track at Manchester with his left thigh heavily strapped.

Meanwhile Lewis-Francis' Birchfield club-mate, Tom Parsons, has said he has already put his disappointing performance at Manchester behind him to concentrate on this weekend's European Under-23 Championships in Germany.

The talented young highjumper was ranked second in the country going into Sunday's World and Commonwealth trials, which also doubled as the AAAs, but he fell a long way short of his best form going out of the competition with a height of

2.17 metres after three failures at 2.20m.

The final was eventually won by five-time champion Ben Challenger with a leap of

2.27m, with Parsons languishing back in fifth.

"I was gutted with the way things went," said the Hall Green athlete. "Everything felt OK. I cleared 2.17m without too much trouble but then it went wrong - I don't know why.

"The take-off on my first attempt was too far away, I lengthened my run-up for the second and with the third I got the height but brought the bar off with my legs.

"There wasn't a lot of shade around and it was hot but it was the same for everyone else too, so I can't really use that as an excuse. Anyway in the end Ben was head and shoulders better than the rest of us."

But the 21-year-old has had very little time to brood on his setback and flew out to Erfurt on Monday ahead of tomorrow's qualifying where his first aim is to make sure he reaches the final.

To do that he must clear

2.21m, two centimetres lower than his personal best but four higher than the height he managed in Manchester.

It is difficult to see Parsons getting a medal with six rivals having already gone over at 2.30m but he believes he can set another personal best. "I have still got to believe that I have at least

2.25m in me," he said.

Parsons and the rest of the Great Britain squad have been urged by their team leader, Steve Rippon, to use Erfurt as preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London.

Britain's youngsters will be expected to learn from age groups championships with a view to peaking in seven years' time.

"Every athlete we have brought here will be fired up by London's winning bid for the Olympic Games," said Rippon. "And every one of them knows the importance of competing professionally and successfully at Championships like this."