No Specialty, No Problem for Jones

Marion Jones looked up at the media throng waiting for a few precious minutes with her after her 400-meter victory at Sunday’s Mt. San Antonio College Relays and must have wondered: Where were these kind of numbers at the starting line?

It was kind of lonely in the starting blocks for Jones, who glanced around and saw only four runners audacious enough to step in against her. And this wasn’t the 100 meters, Jones’ specialty, an event she won 19 times in her final 19 races of 1998. Nor was it the 200 meters, the other event in which Jones was the 1998 world leader.

The 400 meters is something of a lark for Jones. A once-a-year joyride. Something different, something off the beaten path.

“There is no future in the 400 for me,” Jones said with a laugh after blowing away the incredible shrinking women’s 400 field in 50.79 seconds--a respectable time, but well off her meet-record 50.36, set here in 1998.

“I don’t mind doing this once in a while. If I get the chance in 2000, I’d love to help my American teammates in the 4-by-400 relay.”

That is why Jones comes to Mt. SAC to run the 400. She has spoken boldly of winning an unprecedented five gold medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics, which means she needs to add another event to her regular repertoire--100, 200, long jump, 400-meter relay. Casting an eye toward a leg on the U.S. 4x400-meter relay team in Sydney, Jones runs a lap around the track here and there, just to maintain a feel for it.

That doesn’t sound like a reason to send 400-meter sprinters running for hills beyond Hilmer Lodge Stadium, but it happened. In fact, it might have been the best race of the meet. According to meet director Scott Davis, between the time he originally seeded the field until the starting gun sounded Sunday, seven runners bailed out of the women’s 400--including 400-meter specialists Fali Ogunkoya of Nigeria and Maicel Malone, who both opted to run the 200 meters instead.

“I couldn’t find anybody to run against [Jones],” Davis said.

So Jones ran most of the race by herself, separating quickly from the other four starters and coasting in with no one in the vicinity to push her.

“My goal was to run sub-50,” said Jones, appearing slightly disappointed. “Obviously, that didn’t happen. The field was not as strong as I thought it was going to be.”

Nor was hers the only race depleted by dropouts. The men’s 100 meters lost two of its marquee names when reigning world champion Maurice Greene scratched because of a sore hamstring and Jon Drummond took ill. By the time the race went off, only three runners were in the blocks--winner Mike Marsh (10.06 seconds, wind-aided), Obadiah Cooper and Frank Nwampka.

Ato Boldon, who ran a personal-best 9.86 seconds in the 100 here in 1998, was not entered in the 100 Sunday. He ran the 200 instead--winning in 20.19 seconds--and anchored HSI International’s winning 400-meter relay team.

Why no 100 meters?

Because Boldon did not want to go head-to-head with Greene, his close friend and HSI International teammate.

“If you look back, I run the 100 here every other year,” Boldon said. “Maurice and I have a pact. When he runs the 100, I run the 200, instead of beating up on each other and then taking on the rest of the world.”

The situation will be different in August, when Greene and Boldon will face off for the 100-meter world championship in Seville, Spain. Boldon, who won the 200-meter world title in 1997 and flirted with the 100-meter world record in 1998, says the 100-meter championship is his only goal in 1999.

“This year, I’m only thinking about the 100-meter world championship,” Boldon said. “Everything else is details.

“The world record? Forget about it. I was banging my head on the world record all last year. Nobody could possibly run as many 9.8s into the wind as I did.

“The 200-meter championship? Been there, done that.

“The 100-meter championship is all I’m thinking about.”

Other highlights of the invitational portion of the meet Sunday included:

* Jones’ husband, C.J. Hunter, posting a personal-best to upset John Godina in the men’s shot put. Hunter’s winning mark was 70 feet, three inches. Godina, the two-time world champion, was second at 68 feet, 11 3/4 inches.

* Godina winning the men’s discus throw with a mark of 213 feet, 3 inches.

* Inger Miller winning the women’s 100 meters in a wind-aided time of 10.92.

* Derrick Adkins winning the men’s 400-meter hurdles in 48.71.

* Larry Wade breaking the meet record to win the men’s 110-meter hurdles in 13.22, ahead of two-time world champion Allen Johnson, a surprising fifth place at 13.56.

* Hudson DeSouza of Brazil setting the meet record in the men’s mile with a time of 3:56.98.