WALNUT, Calif., April 17 -- Marion Jones yanked her white T-shirt over her head and peeled off her track tights to reveal a still-sculpted body under a sleek, tank body suit. When the announcer called "on your marks," Jones took her customary hops, ran in place for a split second, pounded her thighs and dropped to the blocks. Getting set for her first race since departing in tears from an unsuccessful 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Jones fingered the white start line and slowly dropped her head, looking every bit the woman who won five medals at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney.
But then the starting gun went off.
Marion Jones, right, finishes last by nearly 1.5 seconds in a 400-meter dash. Lashinda Demus, left, took second. Jones refused to comment on her performance afterward.
(Danny Moloshok -- AP)
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_____ 2004 Summer Olympics _____
• Look back at the Athens Games, highlighted by Michael Phelps's eight medals and marked by unfounded worries over terrorism.
• Photos
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By the time she reached the 300-meter mark of this grueling 400 race at the Mount San Antonio College Relays, which Jones has often used to kick off her outdoor competition season, she began to fade among the six entrants. As she ran down the homestretch, things got worse, quickly. She looked nothing like the old Marion Jones -- nor, for that matter, any other elite-level runner. With her head pitching from side to side and her left foot swinging out like a schoolgirl straining to finish a too-long race, Jones appeared either exhausted or injured as she crossed the finish line.
She finished dead last in 55.03 seconds, more than 3.5 seconds behind victor Novlene Williams of Jamaica and almost 1.5 seconds behind American Mary Danner, who was fifth.
Though Jones is hardly a 400 specialist, she has won this race on four occasions, posting times ranging from 49.59 in 2000 to a worst in 1999 of 50.79. In 2003, she was pregnant and did not compete. Last year, she finished fourth in the 200.
"I thought it would be a race between her, myself and Lashinda" Demus, said Australian Jana Pittman, who also struggled down the stretch and claimed third (52.33) behind Demus (51.79). "I was honored to be in a race against her."
What happened Sunday to Jones, who did not limp or receive treatment immediately after the race, went unexplained, but this was clear: She has not regained the dominant form she exhibited before having a baby in the summer of 2003, and being assailed with steroid and drug allegations last year that remain unresolved.
Though her aides promised she would talk about the race after cooling off on the practice fields near Hilmer Lodge Stadium, she instead bolted from a far corner of the fields, using a convoluted detour, the help of a bodyguard who delivered her backpack from under a tree, and a waiting van that also carted away Tim Montgomery, the father of Jones's young son. Montgomery, who also has been the subject of steroid allegations, ran a mediocre anchor leg for a U.S. 4x100-relay team that finished fifth in a race won by Maurice Greene's HSI team.
"What it probably means is she's been doing a lot of specific speeds and sprints," Pittman said. "The hard part is to get speed between 300 and 400. . . . She's not a 400 runner. She did a pretty good job."
Pittman, of course, did not see Jones's finish.
Jones, who at last year's Olympics finished fifth in the long jump and participated in a muffed handoff in the 4x100 relay, looked like she might hyperventilate after she crossed the line. She bent over the track for several minutes, her back heaving. She then walked to the infield and sat on the grass. She was still breathing hard nearly 10 minutes after. As she lay on the grass, Montgomery leaned over and put her shoes on for her.
With Montgomery carrying their bags, she walked in silence with a group of reporters to the interview area, breaking off to rest by a pole vault mat. With assurances from race officials that she would return, she and Montgomery detoured to the practice fields and began a stroll around the perimeter that Jones's aides said was merely to warm down. Instead, the notoriously secretive pair cut up a hillside and slipped into the van.
Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative founder Victor Conte, who is scheduled to go to trial on steroid distribution charges in September, said last year he gave steroids and other drugs to Jones, who has repeatedly and vehemently denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs. In response to the claims Conte made on national television, Jones filed a defamation suit against him, alleging that his charges have severely damaged her earning potential.
Montgomery, meantime, faces a lifetime ban from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for a variety of drug allegations in a case that will be heard in June. He also refused to comment.
