News19 Apr 2004


Greene convincing, Jones and Montgomery disappointing at Mt SAC

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Maurice Greene defeats Tim Montgomery at the Mt SAC Relays (© Getty Images)

America's marquee sprinters provided the big headlines at the final day of the 46th Mt SAC Relays in Walnut, California, as defending Olympic champions Maurice Greene and Marion Jones ended up on opposite ends of the performance spectrum.  Greene breezed to an easy win in the 100 Metres while Jones struggled to a fourth-place finish in the 200.

A spectacular start propelled Greene to a world-leading 10.02 clocking, despite the handicap of a 1.6 mps headwind.  It was a powerful statement from the defending Olympic champion, as World Long Jump champion Dwight Phillips (10.26) and world record holder Tim Montgomery (10.27) battled each other for the next places far behind Greene. 

"[Coach] John [Smith] and I have been working on some new things in my start," Greene said.  "I wanted to run a complete race, and I think I did.  Still, there are things I need to do better.  I'd rate it 7 on a scale of 10."

Originally, both the Greene and Montgomery camps thought it would be best for the two sprint stars to run in separate sections.  But one day before the competition, Montgomery decided he wanted to meet Greene head-on, and both sides agreed to this "clash of the titans". 

But Greene's textbook departure erased any drama which the race might otherwise have had. 

Montgomery offered no excuses for his distant third-place finish.  "There was a lot of rocking back and forth while we were in the blocks," he said.  "And I got caught rocking back when the gun went off.  I just wasn't mentally prepared."

But he didn't deny that Greene was superb.  "Today, Maurice was terrific," Montgomery admitted.  "But I'll take each race in stride.  I have never run a good race into the wind.  Today may have been my fastest."

The aches and injuries which have bothered Greene recently seem now to be in the background.  "This was the first time I've run without pain in the last two years," he said, also adding that he had hoped to run under ten seconds despite the unfavourable wind. 

Greene also revealed that the 200 Metres is not presently in his plans for Athens.  Next up in his schedule for the coming weeks will be competitions in Martinique, Osaka, and Los Angeles. 

Earlier in the afternoon, Greene anchored his HSI teammates to a 38.56 win in the 4x100 Relay. 

For Jones, today's 200 race was her first outing in that event since the 2002 Memorial Van Damme in Brussels, and her fourth-place finish indicated just how much she had lost during her year's maternity leave during the 2003 season.  Jones's powerful domination through the curve was totally absent, although she held a marginal lead coming into the final 100 metres.  After that, there was no lift, no power for the finish.

US university runner Connie Moore breezed past the Sydney champion to win the race in a wind-aided 22.71, with Crystal Cox (22.91) and Tonette Dyer (22.99) also clipping the 23.02 of Jones.

"Fourth place is a huge disappointment for me today," Jones admitted, after losing her first completed 200-metre final since 1997.  "But I'm really looking at the big picture this year.  I'm not putting pressure on this race or that race." 

Jones had customarily run the 400 Metres at Mt SAC in past years, but for this visit, she opted for a shorter sprint.  "I wanted to work on my speed and endurance.  Obviously I have a lot of work to do.  But it's good that there are three months until the US Trials.  My goal is to improve every single week."

Both Jones and her partner Montgomery will have relay competition at Penn next weekend, followed by appearances in Jamaica in early May. 

The rains of Saturday gave way to virtually clear skies and an afternoon temperature of 23C in this community located fifty kilometres east of Los Angeles, and those improved conditions helped produce a number of other outstanding performances. 

Angela Whyte of Canada lowered her own world-leading time in the 100 Hurdles with a 12.75 clocking, ahead of Bisa Grant (13.09) and Sarah Claxton (13.11). 

A further world-leading time came from Mark Fountain in the Men's Mile.  The 22-year-old Australian raced past Michael Stember in the final straight to knock 0.01 off his PB with a 3:59.63 time, as the American clocked 4:00.70.

In the Men's 800 Metres, Jonathan Johnson took the lead midway through the first lap and widened his margin to 20 metres with 200 remaining.  Bernard Lagat sprinted away from the lagging pack in an attempt to overtake Johnson just before the finish, but the US university student prevailed, 1:46.32 to the Kenyan's 1:46.96. 

Another Johnson--J.J.--similarly had a lead going into the late stages of the Men's 200 Metres, but he was outkicked just before the finish by Mickey Grimes (20.31) and Wallace Spearman (20.35), with Johnson finishing third in 20.37 into a headwind of 0.4. 

Yet a third Johnson was on centre stage later in the afternoon, as world champion Allen controlled the Men's 110 Hurdles with his 13.25.  Larry Wade's late-race surge fell short at 13.31, with Arend Watkins finishing just behind in 13.34.  

Outstanding times were recorded in the Women's 400 Metres by a pair of university students.  Monique Henderson won the invitational section in 51.49, while Tonette Dyer captured the open race with 51.53.

A similar pattern also prevailed in the Men's 400 Metres as collegians took top honours.  Andrew Rock of tiny Wisconsin-LaCrosse was the invitational winner in 45.23, while Craig Everhart of local university UCLA was the open champion in 45.52. 

Toby Stevenson pushed his season-best mark in the Men's Pole Vault to 5.70 as he cleared that height in a jumpoff to win against Brad Walker (5.66). 

Chelsea Johnson continued her outstanding season in the Women's Pole Vault with a 4.47 win over Mary Sauer's 4.37. 

Coming off the final turn in the Men's 400 Hurdles, Britain's Chris Rawlinson was locked in a three-man battle with Paris silver medallist Joey Woody and Jamaica's Kemel Thompson.  A push in the final metres brought Rawlinson to a win in 48.93 ahead of Woody's 49.11, as Thompson faded to 49.67, barely holding off Sherman Armstrong (49.69). 

In the women's version of the hurdles, Brenda Taylor was virtually unchallenged in her 55.18 win. 

Kenta Bell's outstanding season continued with a 17.40 victory in the Men's Triple jump, his fourth performance at 17.40 or better in the last month.  Von Ware was a distant second at 16.60. 

Recently crowned world indoor champion Savante Stringfellow easily won the Men's Long Jump with 8.31, as Jackie Edwards of the Bahamas took the women's event at 6.38. 

Only thirty centimetres separated the top three finishers in the Men's Discus, won by Carl Brown (64.11) over Casey Malone (63.91) and Canada's Jason Tunks (63.82).  Tunks' Dutch wife Leija was the Women's Shot Put champion at 18.32. 

A US relay quartet of Angela Daigle, Chryste Gaines, Inger Miller, and Tori Edwards toured the stadium in 42.33 for a world-leading performance in the Women's 4x100 Relay. 

Miller had earlier given evidence of her recovery from various injuries the past season with a convincing win in the Women's 100 Metres.  The double medallist from the Seville World Championships broke away from a phalanx of runners with thirty metres remaining for a wind-aided 11.04 to defeat Allyson Felix (11.14) and Daigle (11.24). 

Libor Charfreitag of Slovakia won a tight competition in the Men's Hammer with 77.46 ahead of American James Parker (76.94), while Anna Mahon had an even smaller margin of victory with 69.38 in the women's event, with Trinidad's Candice Scott (69.22) in second.  The new holder of the American record in the event, Erin Gilreath, placed third at 68.48. 

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