This Jump Suits Jones

The “Swift Suit” wasn’t particularly swift, but the long jump finally was long.

Descriptively speaking, those were results Marion Jones decided she could live with as she walked off the Hayward Field track Saturday afternoon.

Jones had entered the Prefontaine Classic with a pair of pressing assignments: Take a 100-meter test run in Nike’s head-to-ankle body suit for the benefit of the television cameras, then try to take a step forward in her ongoing wrestling match with the long jump.

She managed a split decision.

Looking like a speedskater who’d lost her clap skates and needed to find them in a hurry, Jones ran 100 meters in a wind-aided 10.93 seconds, good enough for the victory, but barely enough to pass muster with the runner.

“For me, 10.93 is a jog,” said Jones, who moved quickly to absolve the bodysuit.

“My performance [stank], it had nothing to do with the suit,” she said. “My start was horrible, my transition was not very good, but fortunately, I’m strong enough to pull it out.

“I’ve got to get better, no doubt about it. There are so many things I need to improve.”

Jones was happier with her first long jump victory of the year, three meets in the coming. After failing to break 22 feet at Osaka, Japan, and Raleigh, N.C., Jones went 22 feet 10 1/2 inches on her first jump Saturday, wrapping up first place early.

“A step in the right direction,” Jones said. “I think I built up some confidence. I didn’t have the best series of jumps [she fouled on her last two attempts], but I got one good one out there.”

Jones shrugged.

“I’m just waiting for a meet when I’m happy with every event.”

Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson, gearing up for a 200-meter showdown at next month’s U.S. Olympic trials, took turns on the track tuning up--Greene running the 200, Johnson the 400.

Both won easily, Greene running a wind-aided 19.93 and Johnson recording this year’s world’s fastest time in 43.92. Neither, however, was thrilled by the numbers.

“C-plus” is how Greene graded his performance. “I need to accelerate better. It should’ve been faster. I could’ve run 19.85 today.”

Johnson said he entered the meet hoping to “run under 44, but not just sneak under 44 like I did.” Running into a swirling wind, Johnson went out aggressively and covered the first 200 meters in 20.8 seconds, which, he said, “shows what kind of shape I’m in.”

But in the process, he felt a twinge in his left quadriceps, making him “a little bit uncomfortable,” and eased up on the straightaway.

“At that point,” he said, “I felt I had a pretty good lead, so I decided to bring it in easy.”

Johnson’s time was a meet record, a bit of trivia that failed to impress him.

“This year, it’s all about getting ready for the Olympics,” he said. “I’m not really concerned about records. I’m just looking to be ready to run as fast as I can at the trials. . . . At this point, I’m exactly where I want to be. I’m in great shape.”

Greene, however, conceded his technique coming off the turn “needs work” in the next three weeks before he takes on Johnson at the trials. Three weeks? Ample time, Greene suggested.

“I will win the trials,” he said.

Saturday’s meet, played out in front of a crowd of 12,408, produced exceptional races in the men’s mile and women’s 1,500 meters. Eight runners completed the mile in under 4 minutes--Kenya’s William Chirchir won in 3:51.84--but Donald Sage’s ninth-place time of 4:00.29 was especially notable.

Sage, an 18-year-old senior from York High School in Elmhurst, Ill., recorded the fastest time by a high-school miler since Marty Liquori broke 4 minutes 33 years ago.

“It was pretty overwhelming,” Sage said of running against an elite international field that included Canada’s Kevin Sullivan, Brazil’s Hudson da Souza and Ireland’s Mark Carroll. “But I think that helped me. I knew it was possible [to approach 4 minutes] if I could run close to them.”

In the women’s 1,500, Romania’s Gabriela Szabo overcame Suzy Favor Hamilton’s 20-meter lead out of the final turn and caught her as Hamilton stumbled at the finish. Both runners eclipsed the meet record by more than five seconds--Szabo winning in 4:00.73, Hamilton finishing in 4:00.79.

Hamilton admitted she gambled in opening an early lead, but said it was the only strategy that would have yielded a fast race.

“I knew going into the race [Szabo] didn’t want to push the pace,” Hamilton said. “We have the same agent and he told me, ‘You’ve got to get out in front.’

“Ideally, I would have run behind her, but I wouldn’t have had as fast a time. Sometimes, for a faster time, you have to sacrifice.”

By that much, Szabo kept her two-year winning streak intact. She couldn’t have cut it much closer, but Szabo claimed she wasn’t surprised she was able to run down Hamilton.

“I train for the finish,” Szabo said matter-of-factly.

Other winners included:

* Gail Devers, setting a meet record with a time of 12.64 seconds in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. It was the first race of the season for Devers, who is coming back from her latest spate of injuries--this time, a hamstring and an Achilles’ tendon.

“I’ve been out of a boot cast for only 12 days,” Devers said. “So I had no expectations going into this race. But I’m pleased. I had to get going, I have to get ready for the trials.”

* Coby Miller, winning the men’s 100 in 10 seconds flat, the third-fastest time in the world this year.

* Maria Mutola of Mozambique, who edged Regina Jacobs in the women’s 800. Jacobs’ time of 1:58.08 was a personal best, but Mutola eclipsed her with a meet-record 1:57.65.