Jones
wins 100, Morrison hits jackpot
Ira Podell for AP
Uniondale, New York - In a meet hurt by the withdrawal of two marquee runners, Marion
Jones won the 100 meters Sunday in the inaugural TFA "ProChampionships".
Jones returned to the track where she starred in last year's Goodwill Games and easily
beat Inger Miller, winning in 11.33 seconds while running into a strong wind.
"It was nice to come here and get a victory," Jones said. "It was a
little disappointing that not more people were here, but it will take some time to get
spectators out to an event such as this."
The meet drew a sparse crowd of 3,184 after Michael Johnson and Gail Devers withdrew last
week. Johnson, the Olympic gold medallist and world record-holder in the 200, withdrew
because of the death
of his grandmother. Devers has a hamstring injury.
A random drawing among six TFA events rewarded the women's 100-meter hurdles winner with a dlrs 100,000 bonus, and Melissa Morrison won the jackpot payoff. The other events eligible for the prize were the women's 100 and 800, the men's 200, 110 hurdles and the 3,000.
``This is the biggest payoff of my life,'' Morrison said after she won in 12.98 seconds. ``With this money, I could pay off my Visa (credit card) bill, my mother's Visa bill and some of her other bills.''
The association and its ProChampionships were established in April in an attempt to generate interest in athletics in the United States and to give American athletes the opportunity to perform at home.
Devers' absence and the strong wind took some of the lustre off the women's 100, and the times were not impressive.
``A lot of people will see my time and say, `We've got her now,''' Jones said after running well below her personal best of 10.65 seconds. ``Let them think that.''
Without Johnson, Maurice Greene, the world's No. 1 in the 100, won the 200 in 20.37 seconds. However, after his race he was more interested in the women's jackpot race.
``The winner of this race is my new girlfriend,'' Greene proclaimed before it began. ``At least until the dlrs 100,000 is gone.''
Obadele Thompson of Barbados, who doubled in the 200, captured the 100 in 10.29 seconds. Larry Wade won the men's 110 hurdles in 13.39 seconds to beat Mark Crear and Olympic and world championship gold medallist Allen Johnson.
Stacy Dragila set an American women's record with a pole vault of 4.54 meters (14 feet, 10 3/4 inches), beating the mark of 4.46. The world mark is 4.60.
Other winners in the 15-event meet were: Noah Ngeny, who won the men's mile in 54.66 seconds; Kenya's Paul Bitok, who took the 3,000 in 7 minutes, 43.11 seconds; Sergey Klyugin of Russia, who won the high jump at 2.27; John Godina, who took the shot put with a mark of 20.74 A jump-off was needed for Lawrence Johnson to win the pole vault at 5.70 .
In other women's events, Regina Jacobs won the 800 in 1:59.64, Leah Pells of Canada took the mile in 4:30.22, Tisha Waller won the high jump with a leap of 1.96 and Russia's Yelena Govorova won the triple jump at 14.31.
