Marion Jones of the USA, who came away from thje Sydney Games with a total of five medals, leaves the Athens Olympics empty handed.
"When I woke up this morning, this is not the way I figured the day would end. It is exceeding my wildest dreams in a negative sense."
Jones insisted that the images of her straining to hand over the
baton in the 4x100m relay - that muddled exchange led to the USA's dnf - would not be the final ones of her athletics career.
"There is no way that is my last race," she said. "I go home now and I regroup for next year."
"I have never been one to make excuses and I won't start now."
In the long jump, Jones failed to record a jump over seven metres as Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva won the competition with a second round leap of 7.07 metres. Jones' best was 6.85m, set in the
second round after a foul on her first attempt.
"It didn't happen for me today. I cannot stand here and say I had foul jumps that were long. Nobody counts those," she said.
Agencies
"When I woke up this morning, this is not the way I figured the day would end. It is exceeding my wildest dreams in a negative sense."
Jones insisted that the images of her straining to hand over the
baton in the 4x100m relay - that muddled exchange led to the USA's dnf - would not be the final ones of her athletics career.
"There is no way that is my last race," she said. "I go home now and I regroup for next year."
"I have never been one to make excuses and I won't start now."
In the long jump, Jones failed to record a jump over seven metres as Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva won the competition with a second round leap of 7.07 metres. Jones' best was 6.85m, set in the
second round after a foul on her first attempt.
"It didn't happen for me today. I cannot stand here and say I had foul jumps that were long. Nobody counts those," she said.
Agencies
