Gold ambition

Montgomery looks ready to emulate Jones

PARIS (Reuters) -- Tim Montgomery looks fully prepared to confound the sceptics Monday and emulate his new partner Marion Jones by winning the world 100 meters title.

Since breaking the world record last September in Paris, Montgomery courted controversy through a brief alliance with sprint coach Charlie Francis.

Francis has been banned for life by the Canadian federation after admitting he administered drugs to Ben Johnson who tested positive after winning the 1988 Seoul Olympic 100 title.

Montgomery's life took another twist when Jones gave birth to their son in June and his subsequent form has veered between the indifferent and the awful.

He failed to even make the final at the London grand prix this month and shortly afterwards cut short his European season, saying a peanut allergy had affected his immune system.

Written off before the championships started on Saturday, Montgomery belied his recent form with impressive performances in the opening two rounds Sunday.

He clocked 10.07 in the first round, equaled his own season's best of 10.04 in the second and looked to have plenty in reserve.

Favor

Triple Olympic champion Jones, the world 100 champion in 1997 and 1999, believes Montgomery's poor recent form may work in his favor.

"I think, if anything, the pressure is now off Tim," she said. "Earlier in this season, he was the target, he was everyone's focus.

"Now it seems as if everyone is counting Tim out of it. (If) you know anything about Tim Montgomery's career, you know that as soon as you count him out, he's going to do something fabulous.

"You know, last year at the grand prix final he set the world record. Nobody expected that."

Defending champion Maurice Greene, who lost his world record to Montgomery, clocked 10.18 in the first round on Sunday before improving to 10.04 in his second round heat, 0.02 of a second behind Commonwealth champion Kim Collins.

Five other titles will be decided Monday, with the women's pole vault promising to deliver drama equivalent to the 2001 final.

After a four-hour duel in the afternoon sun in Edmonton, Stacy Dragila finally prevailed over her Russian rival Svetlana Feofanova with just one missed attempt at 4.65 meters proving the difference.

A world record and a bonus of US$100,000 is possible Monday with record holder Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia in the field.

Win or lose, Monday men's triple jump final will be the last outing for Britain's world record holder Jonathan Edwards.

At the age of 37, Edwards's body has told him to retire.

"I don't feel that emotional about things, not yet anyway. I'm feeling good, my ankle is holding up and I plan on being there tomorrow," he said.

IAAF investigates Drummond protest

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) -- The IAAF world track & field federations was to investigate Monday whether to sanction U.S. sprinter Jon Drummond for refusing to leave the track after being disqualified in the a 100 meters quarterfinal which briefly threw World Championships into chaos over the weekend.

During the meeting, which was previously planned, the sport's top officials will assess what measures to take but IAAF secretary general Istvan Gyulai said the outcome was far from assured.

"The range of opinions within the leadership is rather wide," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

"It ranges from 'yes, we understand. It was his last opportunity before retiring' to the need to have immediately very serious sanctions. The options are innumerable."

Late Sunday, after he was disqualified for a false start, Drummond lay on his back on the track for several minutes as race officials tried to get him to leave. He egged on the 50,000 fans at the Stade de France, who booed race officials.

"It doesn't do good to the sport unless you adopt the cynical view that all publicity is good publicity," Gyulai said.

Later, Drummond was officially disqualified and did not appear for the rerun of his heat run half an hour later.

Then, each time the six remaining runners got into their blocks, the spectators at the Stade de France booed and whistled, preventing the race from going ahead. It took seven attempts over 15-20 minutes before the heat finally took place.

The semifinals and final will be run Monday.

Under new international track rules, only one false start by anyone in the field is allowed. After that, any athlete called for jumping the gun is automatically disqualified. Previously, each athlete was allowed two false starts before disqualification.

These are the first world outdoor championships where the new rule has been applied.

Among those watching the drama at the 71,000-seat stadium was International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge.

"It is unsportsmanlike behavior which deserves a suspension," Rogge was quoted as saying by the Parisian sports daily L'Equipe.

The incident was reminiscent of the 100-meter final at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where defending champion Linford Christie of Britain refused to leave the track for several minutes after a false start disqualification.

Both the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.