July 2001 Sport News Headlines

Tuesday, July 24, 2001 - Web posted at 12:41:40 GMT

Greene, Jones in top form

LONDON - Olympic 100 metres champions Maurice Greene and Marion Jones served notice of their fine form ahead of next month's World Championships in Edmonton with convincing victories at the British Grand Prix here at Crystal Palace on Sunday.

World record holder Greene won in 9,98sec despite a headwind of nearly a metre per second with Britain's main hope at this distance Dwain Chambers second in 10,11 and Bernard Williams of the United States third in 10,13.

Chambers then ran a superb 200m, his second string event, to win in 20,31, beating compatriot Christian Malcolm and Kevin Little of the United States.

Greene's fellow American, triple Olympic gold medallist Marion Jones, was allowed to bypass the 100m heats, while her main rival and her training partner Chandra Sturrup of the Bahamas was forced to qualify.

However Bahamian athlete Sturrup made a fantastic start in the final, leaving Jones for dead, but the tall American pulled her back to record her 53rd consecutive victory over 100m, clocking 11,00sec.

Roared on by a capacity crowd, Olympic champion Stacy Dragila came agonisingly close to setting a new women's pole vault world record of 4,82 metres, but touched the bar on each of her attempts.

She won a top-class competition with 4,72m.

The Emsley Carr Mile was won by Moroccan world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj in, by his standards, a modest 3:49,41, ahead of Noah Ngeny, the Kenyan who beat him for the Olympic gold medal.

Ngeny was dropped for the Kenyan team for Edmonton over his insistence on running in this meeting and his failure to attend a training camp in Kenya.

But the Olympic champion looks far from the form needed to challenge El Guerrouj and finished a distant second in 3:51,19.

Australia's Chris Mottram claimed third place.

Mark Richardson of Britain, only recently reinstated from a doping ban, had a fine victory in the 400 metres, clocking 45,22 to beat one of his potential rivals in Edmonton, Greg Haughton of Jamaica on the line.

With one-lap king Michael Johnson retired, the 400m world title is wide open.

In the men's javelin Britain's Olympic silver medallist Steve Backley threw a massive 90,81 metres, his best for nine years.

Olympic champion Jonathan Edwards won the triple jump in 17,29m, leading a British clean sweep of the top four places.

World cross country champion Paula Radcliffe led from start to finish for a splendid 5 000m victory in 14:44,21.

Runner-up was Germany's Irina Mikitenko in 14:53,82, with third place going to Restituta Joseph of Tanzania.

A super-fast 4x100 metres relay saw Maurice Greene anchor his club team, HSI, to victory in a world-leading time of 37,93sec.

Second were the United States, clocking 38,19, then Great Britain, whose quartet ran 38,52. - Nampa-Sapa-AFP

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