GATESHEAD, England, 28 June 2004 — Marion Jones was beaten again in the long jump while Yelena Isinbayeva raised her own women’s pole vault world record at the British Super Grand Prix meeting here yesterday.
Britain’s Olympic gold medal hope Paula Radcliffe ran another remarkable race, clocking one of the fastest 10,000 meters times in history despite the chilly and windy conditions.
Jones, who won three gold medals at the Sydney Olympics, had no answer for the 6.87 meters jump of world triple jump champion Tatyana Lebedeva and could only manage 6.77m to finish second.
The American admitted she was distracted by the allegations of doping made against her by the US Anti-Doping Agency, which has also asked her boyfriend Tim Montgomery to answer drug allegations.
But Jones said she was determined to qualify for the US team at the Olympic Trials in Sacramento next month.
“Off the track it is definitely a distraction. It is unfortunate that I am having to deal with this right now but I hope I will get through it and I will be OK,” Jones said.
“I am confident that I will make the US trials and I will be in Athens. I have done everything asked of me (including a lie detector test which proved negative) and I’m just going to train and make this Olympic team.”
Isinbayeva raised the pole vault record to 4.87 meters, adding one centimeter to the 4.86m mark she set in Budapest in March.
“I prepared for this. This is not a surprise, it is normal for me,” the 22-year-old Russia said.
Isinbayeva set the previous record at the World Indoor Championships, but the sport’s governing body IAAF now combines indoor and outdoor world records in this event.
Radcliffe meanwhile ran alone into the wind and with inadequate pacemaking yet still stopped the clock at 30min 17.15sec, the tenth fastest time ever.
Reigning world champion Kim Collins showed he fully intends to win gold in Athens as he blasted to victory in the 100 meters.
Collins made a devastating start and was never headed as he posted a season’s best of 10.21sec on a track notoriously slow for sprinting while Aziz Zakari of Ghana was third in 10.26sec.
“They were wondering if I was hiding but I wanted to show I’m here,” Collins said.
World 400m champion Anna Guevara of Mexico struggled but held on to win in a rare appearance this year in 50.16sec.
Kenenisa Bekele, who has set world records in the 5,000m and 10,000m this year, failed in an attempt to add the 3,000m mark to his collection but the Ethiopian was a runaway winner in 7:41.31.
In the women’s 100m hurdles, Nigerian-born Glory Alozie blazed to a Spanish record time of 12.57sec and Britain’s Chris Rawlinson sliced through the wind to win the 400m hurdles in an impressive 48.58sec.
Christian Olsson, the world triple jump champion, left it until the last round before producing a winning leap of 17.43m to overhaul Brazil’s Jadel Gregorio’s effort of 17.23.
