Jones in Worlds of Her Own

Although Marion Jones won’t say it in so many words, her ambitious goals over the next eight days are a bold statement. She has to create challenges because she has so few challengers.

That is not something others in her events like to hear. France’s Christine Arron, Europe’s best in the women’s 100 meters, is particularly offended by what she perceives as Jones’ lack of respect for her competitors.

But, in words that Arron should understand, c’est la vie in the world of track and field, where Jones is trying to become a legend even before her own time. She is 23--a mere six years removed from Thousand Oaks High and three from the University of North Carolina, where her primary concern was basketball. When in North Carolina . . .

A two-time national track and field high school athlete of the year, she emerged internationally by winning two gold medals, in the 100 and 400-meter relay, at the 1997 World Championships in Athens. Now, in her second World Championships, she is trying to win an unprecedented four.

Only three athletes, East Germany’s Marita Koch in 1983, Carl Lewis in ’83 and ’87 and Michael Johnson in ‘95, have won three gold medals in the same World Championships. The only athletes who have even competed in four events in the same World Championships are Koch in ‘83, Germany’s Katrin Krabbe in ’91 and American Gwen Torrence in ’93.

But none entered three individual events. Lewis and Johnson ran one relay and Koch, Krabbe and Torrence ran both.

The only question in Jones’ mind on the first day of the World Championships at Estadio Olimpico on Saturday was which relay she will run after competing this week in the 100, 200 and long jump.

“After my three individual events, hopefully after three wins, [Coach] Trevor [Graham] is going to look into my eyes and see whether I’m ready to run the four by one or the four by four,” she said during a news conference last week hard by the Guadalquivir River.

“If it looks like it will be too much stress for me to run a 400 meters, I’ll run the four by one.”

Not everyone is supportive.

“Marion will most definitely not win four gold medals at this year’s World Championships, just as she will miserably fail at five golds at next year’s Olympics,” a Track & Field News reader, Neil Clayton of Brooklyn, wrote in a letter to the editor appearing in the magazine’s current edition.

“Maybe she should consult with the great Steve Williams and Gwen Torrence, both of whom seemed to bite more than they could chew and ended their careers in misery, trying to follow the hype of ‘greatest.’ ”

John Smith agrees that Jones will have difficulty winning four gold medals. As the coach of Pasadena’s Inger Miller, who also will run the 100 and 200 and appears to be in the best shape of her career , it’s not in his best interests to claim otherwise. But, during a month in which track and field athletes such as Merlene Ottey, Javier Sotomayor, Linford Christie and numerous lesser lights were caught in a growing drug scandal, Smith applauds her for the effort. The sport needs an athlete to do something special in order to shift attention to the track.

“It’s going to be fantastic to watch,” Smith said. “I think she’ll be on the medal stand four times. It’s just a matter of what color. But no matter how she does, she’s promoting the sport in a good way.”

Desperate for a positive story in the headlines instead of a positive drug test, the International Amateur Athletic Federation is eager to help.

Originally scheduling the first round of the 100 meters Saturday morning at the same time as the qualifying for the long jump, officials Friday announced that the latter had been postponed one hour so that Jones wouldn’t have to expend energy running back and forth. That’s a concession they didn’t even make for Lewis when he competed in both.

Jones won her 100 heat easily in 11.22 seconds, then had more than an hour to rest before jumping. Even so, she seemed tentative on her landings, needing two attempts to pass the automatic qualifier for Monday’s final with a jump of 22 feet 4 1/4 inches and providing further evidence why the long jump will be her most difficult event to win.

Her chances improved because of the withdrawal of Germany’s Heike Drechsler, who has two long jump victories over Jones since last September. But even before Drechsler’s injury, Track & Field News’ expert panel predicted Jones to finish third behind Fiona May of Italy and defending champion Lyudmila Galkina of Russia. May (23-0 1/2) and Galkina (22-7) finished 1-2 in Saturday’s qualifying ahead of the third-place Jones.

She has no such peers in the sprints. She won her second-round heat in the 100 Saturday night in 10.76, a meet record and the fastest time in the world this year, to reestablish herself as the favorite today. Miller and Greece’s Ekaterini Thanou each ran 10.86, a personal best for the American. Arron ran 11.0.

Qualifying in the 200 begins Tuesday, with the semifinals Wednesday and the final Friday. With her days off Thursday and Saturday, Jones probably will enter a flamenco contest.

Although Arron last week said that Jones is beatable, the fact is that no one has beaten her in the 100 since September 1997 or in the 200 since 1995.

You have to consider the source. For everyone else, Jones has a smile as bright as Seville’s gold castle, Torre del Oro. To her competitors, Arron said, Jones is “cold, distant and pretentious.”

It just goes to show that you can’t win three or four gold medals and Miss Congeniality.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com