EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – Perhaps the fight against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is wearing down Marion Jones. Fifth-place finishes just aren’t her style.
Jones finished fifth behind winner Inger Miller in the women’s 100 meters at the Prefontaine Classic track and field meet on Saturday, but consoled herself with a win in the long jump.
“It kind of balanced out the day,” she said.
Jones’ long-jump mark in the meet’s final event was 22 feet, 9 inches – 8 inches farther than her previous best this season.
The 100-meter effort, though, was anything but encouraging for her final race before the U.S. Olympic trials, which begin July 9 in Sacramento.
She is resigned to the fact that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigation of her will not be resolved by then, either.
“To be truthful, I see it go through the trials and probably right up to the games,” Jones said. “I would love for it to have been yesterday and for it to be done tomorrow. But it just seems this organization is just dragging its feet, and I’m to the point where I’ve done everything I could.”
The Prefontaine meet, part of the IAAF Grand Prix circuit, featured an all-star lineup, and Jones wasn’t the only big name to be beaten.
Maurice Greene was second to Shawn Crawford in the men’s 100 and Allen Johnson was edged by Larry Wade in the 110-meter hurdles.
Crawford stunned Greene with a 9.88-second clocking. Greene, the reigning Olympic gold medalist, was second at 9.93 and John Capel third at 9.95 – the three fastest times in the world this year and the first sub-10-second 100s in the meet’s 31-year history.
Jones’ embattled boyfriend, Tim Montgomery, was sixth in the eight-man field at 10.17 seconds.
Crawford, better known as a 200-meter runner, caught the leaders 10 meters from the tape, and leaned in just ahead of Greene. Greene had been called for a false start, walking 50 meters down the track before returning to the blocks.
Miller came on at the finish to nip 37-year-old Gail Devers, the two-time Olympic champion in the event who was running her first 100 of the season. Both were timed in 11.05 seconds.
“I was just coming to this meet, running this race, to see if I had any speed,” said Devers, a three-time world champion in the 100-meter hurdles. “I didn’t know I had any speed, so I’m happy.”
Chryste Gaines, one of those notified by the anti-doping agency that they could be banned from the Athens Olympics, was third in 11.06. Latashya Colander was fourth at 11.10, with Jones fifth at 11.12.
Stacy Dragila, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, won the pole vault at 15-5 and narrowly missed three times at a world record 16 feet. On the last two attempts, she cleared the bar only to clip it with her wrist on the way down.
Alan Webb, the 21-year-old running on the same track where he broke Jim Ryun’s high school mile record four years ago, ran the fastest mile by an American in the United States at 3:50.85. It’s the fastest by a U.S. runner anywhere in the event in seven years.
Jones turned her attention to the track after a confrontational week with the anti-doping agency.
“I’m sure I would love if there weren’t those distractions,” Jones said. “But that’s the hand that I’ve been dealt, and I deal with it.”
The winner of an unprecedented five Olympic track medals in Sydney four years ago, Jones has taken the offensive in the agency’s investigation of her ties to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. BALCO founder Victor Conte is one of four men indicted on charges of distributing steroids to top athletes.
USADA officials are examining documents and other circumstantial evidence it says it has involving Jones. She has vehemently denied ever taking performance-enhancing drugs, and on Wednesday she challenged USADA to make its proceedings public.
Her lawyer also said Jones has passed a lie detector test on the subject.
“I can only hope,” Jones said. “It’s out of my hands. I’ve done what I can do, as you guys have heard me say a lot of times. Whether people want to believe me or not, I’ve said what I had to say.”
Asked if the BALCO case has taken a toll on Jones, Montgomery said, “I think the results show it.”
But Jones disagreed.
“I refuse to use that as an excuse,” she said. “I just didn’t have it today.”
Greene said his performance “let me know what I need to work on – the middle part of my race. I kind of rushed it. I need to be patient, and I haven’t been patient all year.”
Montgomery and Gaines are among the four athletes who have been notified by USADA that proceedings have begun that could lead to them being suspended for two years. Jones has not received such official notification. Both she and Montgomery testified before the BALCO grand jury.
Montgomery repeated his vow to fight the case against him.
“The truth will come out,” he said. “I just got to sleep, eat and train, and continue my life as it is.”
World champion Perdita Felicien of Canada won the women’s 100-meter hurdles in 12.46 seconds.
Felix Sanchez, the 2003 world champion, earned his 36th consecutive victory in the 400-hurdles, winning in 48.12 seconds, the world’s second-fastest time this year. The New York-born hurdler, who grew up in southern California but competes for the Dominican Republic, is undefeated in the event since 2001.
Koji Murofushi of Japan had four of the top six hammer throws in the world this year, topped by a world-leading 271 feet, 2 inches. All five of his throws broke the Hayward Field record of 266-0 set 12 years ago by Lance Deal, the 1996 Olympic silver medalist.
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