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See Marion run Jones ready for first true Olympic warmup
Posted: Wednesday May 10, 2000 09:59 AM
RALEIGH, N.C. (Reuters) -- The relays have been fun. Now it's time for Marion Jones to really run. The American sprint queen, who hopes to win an historic five gold medals at Sydney's September Olympics, hits the track in the 100 meters for the first time this season on Saturday in a grand prix meeting at Osaka, Japan, where she also expects to unleash a big long jump. The 24-year-old world 100-meter champion and long jump bronze medalist already has run a world-leading 49.59 seconds in the 400 meters and anchored an American women's 800-meter relay team to a world-record 1:27.46 this spring. "But we see the season really starting on Saturday," Jones said in an interview before flying to Japan to contest two of the five events she hopes to win in Sydney. (The women's 200 meters and the 4x100- and 4x400-meter relays are the other.) "The 400 really isn't my forte -- it's kind of experimental -- and of course, the relays are just for fun," she said. So on an Osaka track where two years ago she ran an early-season 10.79-second clocking, Jones plans to go to work, demonstrating not only her sprint speed, but her confidence in the long jump. "I'm so very excited to see me compete and perform in a competition setting," said Jones, whose season was cut short last year by painful back spasms in the world championships 200 meters. "I really think I am in the best shape of my life." And although the season is young, practices have told her she is ready to run some season-leading times. "The track [at Osaka] is fast, so I think I'm ready to go 10.70 something," said Jones. But it's the long jump where she would clearly like to leave her mark this weekend. The event is the weakest of her Olympic competitions, and critics worldwide have frequently suggested that she drop the long jump and go for three or four golds instead of seeking to become the first female track and field performer to win five Olympic golds in a single Games. The talk has only sparked renewed determination by Jones and her coach, Trevor Graham. "I know I'm quiet capable of going 7-plus meters (22 feet 11 3/4 inches) on Saturday," Jones said. "I think it will be quite evident how much more relaxed I am on the runway, just really relaxed with my approach. When I take off the board, people will quickly realize I have put in more time (training), and there will be more extension than in the past." It won't be the extension of former Olympic champions Heike Drechsler of Germany or Jackie Joyner Kersee of the United States, "it's going to be Marion's extension and people are going to have to accept that," Jones said. There's been success in training with the changes, 'but when you throw me out there in a meet and my adrenaline starts pumping, and I start going a zillion miles an hour down that runway, you have to get a feel for it then," she said. That's why she plans to long jump two or three more times before July's U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento, Calif., where she will need to finish in the top three to qualify for the Olympics in her individual events. "But as long as I get one of the board, that's all that matters," Jones said. How far that one could be Saturday, Jones can only guess. But she knows, for motivational reasons, she would like for it to be an eye-opener. "It's funny," she said, "because when I was jumping 7.31 meters (23 feet, 11 3/4 inches) in '98 there wasn't nearly as much talk about my technique, and it was horrible. But all of a sudden in '99 when I wasn't jumping as far with the same technique, there's all these critics. "So it would be really nice to go to Osaka and just really pop out a big one and kinda quiet everybody down for a little bit." That would be fun.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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