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Sunday drama
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Can you make a case that Sunday belonged among the most dramatic days in U.S. Olympic track and field trials history? Easily. The facts speak for themselves: Exhibit A: Marion Jones survived early elimination to win the long jump, keeping alive her drive for five in Sydney. What's more, she had help from perhaps the greatest female athlete in history: Jackie Joyner- Kersee. Exhibit B: Michael Johnson coasted (yes, coasted) to win the 400 meters in 43.68 seconds, the fastest time in the world this year. Exhibit C: There were two great stories in the women's 1,500-meter final that didn't even involve first-place finisher Regina Jacobs, who will turn 37 before the Sydney Games. Runner-up Suzy Favor Hamilton made her third Olympic team but her first since she decided to retain her family name in honor of Dan Favor, her brother who committed suicide last September. Third-place finisher Marla Runyan became the first legally blind athlete to make a U.S. Olympic team. Runyan was born with macular degeneration of the retina, a condition that left her with only limited ability to distinguish shapes and colors in her peripheral vision. "What's in front of me disappears into a hole," she often explains. Exhibit D: This may be the most convincing piece of evidence. You have to go back to 1936 to find the last time even one event required a jump-off to determine a place on an Olympic team. On Sunday there were two within 30 minutes: the men's pole vault and women's high jump. First, Lawrence Johnson outdueled Nick Hysong to win the pole vault with a clearance of 19 feet, 1 1/2 inches. That left Pat Manson, Chad Harting and Derek Miles with equal clearances of 18-5 1/2. Harting finally won the three-man jump-off. Later, after high jumpers Karol Damon and Erin Aldrich had assured themselves places on the Olympic team, Amy Acuff and Tisha Waller needed extra jumps to determine the third berth in that event. Both had cleared 6-2 3/4; Acuff then made her third attempt in an extra round of jumps at 6-3 1/4 to win a trip to Sydney. Sage advice propels JonesOn the surface, Joyner-Kersee's curtain call fell well short of success. The four-time Olympian with six medals to her credit finished sixth in the long jump with a modest leap of 21-10 1/2. But it was Joyner-Kersee who said the right words to Jones before her crucial third jump. In the six-round final, four jumpers are eliminated after their first three jumps. Jones, nearly taking her final steps on tiptoes, fouled awkwardly on her first two attempts. Then Joyner-Kersee offered simple advice to the erstwhile Mrs. Jones, the woman seeking an unprecedented quintuple gold in Sydney. "I told Marion to stay relaxed and jump well before the board," Joyner-Kersee said. It was logical counsel, for sure, the kind Jesse Owens once heeded from his German rival, Lutz Long, at the 1936 Berlin Games. But Jones needed to hear it to get off a legal third-round jump of 22-1 3/4. After Dawn Burrell later took the lead at 22-10 1/2, Jones won the competition with a fifth-round jump of 23-0 1/2. Later, Joyner-Kersee said she had little doubt Jones would make the team. "What I admire most is that we were talking [between the second and third round]," Joyner-Kersee said, "and she wasn't concerned. If you're going to be the best in the world, you can't worry about executing. I didn't sense any concern." Earlier in the week, when Jones was asked to name her Olympic hero, she said simply, "Jackie, without question." Once Jones was safely on the team, she and Joyner-Kersee were sitting beside the runway exchanging advice and high fives. Joyner-Kersee assured everyone this comeback was the last. "Not even in the masters," she said. ... I can't be disappointed. It was really a long shot. Not to take anything away from the other jumpers. They jumped well and they deserve to go. I deserve to go home and do what I was doing before I decided to come back out." Jones' grace under duress called to mind what Carl Lewis did in the 1996 Olympics. Lewis was 15th after two jumps of the qualifying round; only 12 jumpers would advance to the final, so Lewis was one jump from elimination, just as Jones was here. Lewis jumped 27-2 1/2 on that third jump, qualifying for the final. He then jumped 27-10 3/4 on his third attempt to win his fourth consecutive long jump gold medal. Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Brian Cazeneuve covers Olympic sports for the magazine.
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