Greene Turns It Into a Mismatch

Tim Montgomery offered excuses Sunday. Maurice Greene offered a powerful, smooth performance that banished all thoughts of the misfortunes he endured the last few years.

As a result, the first 100-meter race between the world’s premier sprinters in nearly two years wasn’t even close.

With the crowd at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on its feet, Greene pulled away from a slow-starting Montgomery and crested a headwind of 1.6 meters per second to win in 10.02 seconds. The Olympic 100-meter champion acknowledged he might have run faster in his outdoor debut if he hadn’t turned his head to the right during his last few strides -- seeking out his mother in the stands, he insisted.

His motivation was more likely to enjoy the sight of Montgomery -- who took away his world record in 2002 -- finishing third in 10.27. Dwight Phillips, the top-ranked long jumper in the world last year, sandwiched himself between Greene and Montgomery to finish second, at 10.26.

“The only statement I was trying to make is that I’ve been training hard and I’m feeling good,” said Greene, who lives in Chatsworth. “This is just the start of the season. [There are] better things to come....

“Running a race, where I’m not feeling any pain whatsoever, no knee problems, nothing bothering me, that feels good. I haven’t been there in two years. That’s the thing that felt best today.”

Montgomery, by contrast, said he felt unsettled. He said he was disappointed to have initially been entered in a different 100-meter race and that his representatives had to “pull strings” to get him beside Greene “at the eleventh hour.” However, meet organizers disputed that, saying the two had been separated at both men’s request and then put in adjacent lanes after Montgomery asked for the move.

“This is what you’re going to meet, and it’s best you meet it now,” Montgomery said of facing Greene.

Said Greene: “I come out here with a game plan, and people come in, people go out, so it doesn’t matter who’s in the race. I’m going to stick to my game plan. It doesn’t matter who I line up against.”

Montgomery also said he was deflated by his inability to console Marion Jones, his romantic partner and mother of the couple’s 9-month-old son, after her fourth-place finish in the women’s 200. She was talking to reporters while he prepared for his race, and they couldn’t connect.

“It threw my mind in a whirlwind,” he said. “It wasn’t a good day for the family. I might have thought about her race more than I thought about my race.”

In addition, he contended there was “a lot of rocking at the line” for his race, and he had leaned back and was leaning forward when the gun went off. “I got caught in a bad position,” he said. “You just can’t do that in a 100-meter race.

“I’ve just got to take each race in stride, knowing I have the capability and the belief in my system that what’s going to come out of me in July [at the U.S. Olympic trials] is going to be the right time.”

Greene said he was pleased with his start, which he’d been working on with coach John Smith, and preferred to have the wind in his face rather than at his back. “I don’t need wind to run a fast time,” he said.

Overall, though, he gave himself a B-minus. “This race doesn’t really mean anything,” he said. “This is just the start of the season.”

But maybe it’s the continuation of a tide newly turned in his favor. When wildfires ravaged Southern California last fall, he was evacuated from his home and didn’t know whether it would be there when he returned; the fires came close but did no damage.

“I just thank God for letting me come out here and run a good race,” he said. “Just let me be healthy. That’s the best thing.”

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The men’s 400-meter relay was won by the HSI team of Mickey Grimes, Ato Boldon, Larry Wade and Greene in 38.56, and the women’s 400-meter relay was won by the USA Red team of Angela Daigle, Chryste Gaines, Inger Miller and Torri Edwards in a meet-record 42.33.... Edwards also won the women’s university/open 200 in 23.03. She was the bronze medalist at last year’s world championships.... Miller won the women’s 100 in a wind-aided 11.04.... Kenta Bell won the men’s invitational triple jump at 57 feet 1, his third consecutive meet title.... UCLA sophomore Chelsea Johnson won the pole vault with a meet-record height of 14-8. She missed three attempts at 15-1 1/4, which would have broken her collegiate record of 15 feet.... Four-time world 110-meter hurdles champion Allen Johnson won his signature event in 13.25.