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News06 Aug 1999


Greene and Jones breach British sprint barriers

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Greene and Jones breach British sprint barriers

7 August 1999 – London (Agency Reports) - Marion Jones ran 10.80 seconds to tie her fastest time this year while world record holder Maurice Greene cruised to a modest 9.97 on Saturday as the world's fastest sprinters tuned up for this month's World Championship with two more impressive wins.

The two American sprinters showed some 16,000 fans at Crystal Palace why they are the fastest around with awesome performances at the British Grand Prix even though Greene's time was well short of the 9.79 he ran in Athens two months ago.

"I'm a bit tired now because I have done a lot of racing recently,'' said Greene, who hit the front 30 metres from home for his fifth sub 10 second run of the year. "I didn't feel any pressure here today and I just had to come out and have fun.

"But the time proves I am in great shape and I am ready for Seville,'' said Greene after he finished well clear of Canada's Bruny Surin (10.02) and Britain's Dwain Chambers (10.04) with Olympic champion Donovan Bailey, still on his way back from injury, last in a season's best 10.36.

The consolation for Greene was that he became the first sprinter to run inside 10 seconds on a British track.

The American returned to anchor a 4x100 relay team to victory in 38.02 seconds. The other three runners were three of his training companions, Jon Drummond, Ato Boldon and Curtis Johnson, who finished clear ahead of a strong British quartet of Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Julian Golding.

In the women's 100, Jones matched the time she clocked last month at Lausanne which is a much faster track for sprinters.

Head down, she powered to the front 30 metres into the race and finished almost three metres clear of world 200-metre World Champion Zhanna Pintusevich of Ukraine, who clocked 10.98 with another American, Inger Miller, third in 11.13. With her superb time Jones becomes the first woman inside 11 seconds in the United Kingdom. The previous best of 11.02 was set by Merlene Ottey 10 years ago.

"I am so far ahead of the rest of the world that everyone is just judging me by my times,'' said Jones, the only runner other than the late Florence Griffith Joyner to run inside 10.73.

"To be frank, Seville is where it counts and there it's just about the win, the times don't matter,'' she said.

"Obviously the faster times will come but, at the moment, there is too much pressure on me for no reason because I'm running well."

Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj failed in his bid to break the world mile record he set a month ago in Rome and Haile Gebrselassie was just over three seconds outside the world two mile mark.

The last time El Guerrouj went onto the track, 20-year-old Kenyan rival Noah Ngeny chased him home to a world record 3:43.13 in Rome a month ago. Without the Kenyan in the race, the Moroccan ran the last 500 metres alone but still eclipsed former world record holders Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram in running the fastest mile on a British track, 3:47.10.

The women's 5000m provided the final UK allcomers' record as Zahra Ouaziz of Morocco, the 1995 world championship bronze medallist, out-kicked Britain's Paula Radcliffe on the final lap to finish in 14:42.03, the fastest in the world this year. Radcliffe set a British record 14:43.54.

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