CARSON, California, 23 June 2005 — Former Olympic triple champion Marion Jones and her partner Tim Montgomery launch long-shot attempts to qualify for the Helsinki world championships at the US trials starting today.
Once unchallenged as the world’s leading women’s sprinter, Jones, 29, is now ranked only 10th in the United States over 100 meters and has not run a 200 this year.
On current form Montgomery, who lost his world 100 meters record to Jamaican Asafa Powell this month, will also miss selection. Apart from defending champions who can automatically take part in Helsinki, only the first three finishers in each event will make the American team.
Montgomery has been charged with serious doping offenses by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and is awaiting a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
USADA has also investigated Jones, who has struggled on the track since giving birth to a son almost two years ago.
Competition will be intense in both men’s and women’s sprints in the four-day trials as the new generation of American sprinters step on to the track.
Collegiate champion Wallace Spearmon, 20, has run the year’s fastest 200 meters and 22-year-old Darold Williamson, an Olympic 4x400 meters relay gold medalist, posted the fastest two 400 meters times of the year en route to his collegiate title.
Kerron Clement, 19, has added to the excitement. He has the top 400 meters hurdles time in the world after breaking Michael Johnson’s world indoor 400 meters record in March.
Their success, and the progression of others including 200 meters sprinter Tyson Gay and 18-year-old 400 meters speedster LaShawn Merritt, has led Spearmon to proclaim he’s “sticking with the young guys” in this week’s championships.
US men’s world championships coach John Smith, who also coaches former Olympic and world 100 meters champion Maurice Greene, begs to differ.
“There’s a little different thing when you step up against people who feed their children, pay their mortgages and put away their life savings,” Smith told Reuters.
Smith said the new generation’s biggest chance for success could come in the 200 meters, an event run less frequently than the 100 on the professional circuit.
The opposition there is still formidable as Shawn Crawford, Bernard Williams and Justin Gatlin swept the 200 medals at last year’s Athens Olympics.
Williamson has beaten Olympic gold medalist and training partner Jeremy Wariner twice this year over 400 meters, but to make the Helsinki team, he must defeat either Wariner, Olympic silver medalist Otis Harris or bronze medalist Derrick Brew.
An American sweep in the 400 meters appears likely again in Helsinki and is possible in the 200.
Powell, who finished fifth in Athens, is likely to prevent an American one-two-three in the 100 where Greene, training partner Leonard Scott, Olympic gold medalist Gatlin and fourth-place Athens finisher Crawford have medal ambitions.
