Jones wins 200, Johnson clocks year's best

Gene Cherry

Triple Olympic champion Marion Jones breezed to victory in the women's 200 metres and 1996 Olympic gold medallist Allen Johnson ran the year's fastest 110 metres hurdles at the U.S. championships on Sunday.

Jones, running powerfully around the curve, hit the finish tape in 22.52 seconds for a two-metre victory as she claimed her fourth consecutive U.S. title in the event.

The championships serve as the U.S. trials for the world championships being held in Edmonton in August.

Now she will attempt to win the only major sprint title missing from her impressive credentials, the world 200-metre crown, in Canada. She crashed out of the 1999 championship 200-metre semifinals with back spasms.

"I'm ready," said Jones, who takes off for Rome and her first European race, a 100 metres on Friday.

Her time was not as fast as her world-leading 22.23 seconds clocked on Saturday, but the conditions were far from ideal.

Rain fell earlier in the day and cool, cloudy weather greeted sprinters at race time. A head wind of 1.6 metres per second further hampered performances.

"I was a bit disappointed. I would have love to have come out here and had perfect conditions," Jones said.

NEGATIVE WIND
"But some time you just have to compete, and that was not a bad time for running into a negative wind."

Johnson was fourth in Sydney, but he looked like a potential winner at Edmonton. He ran into a head wind of 3.2 metres per second, making his time of 13.22 seconds even more impressive.

"I was running for my life," said Johnson, who has had an up-and-down season. "I was scared to death. I knew it was anybody's race."

Three-time world champion Gail Devers also was a hurdles winner. She clocked 12.91 seconds into a head wind of 2.8 mps to win the women's race.

Olympic silver medallist Lawrence Johnson overcame the poor conditions to clear 5.85 metres in the men's pole vault, then missed three times at what would have been American record 6.05 metres.

Sydney gold medallist Nick Hysong took third at 5.65 metres, 10 cm below runner-up Tim Mack. American record holder Jeff Hartwig failed to clear the opening height of 5.40 metres.

Regina Jacobs attempted a never-before accomplished championship triple, running both the women's 800 and 5,000 metres on Sunday after winning the 1,500 metres on Saturday. The four-time Olympian won the 800 in 2:00.43 and finished second behind legally blind Marla Runyan in the 5,000. She plans to run only one event at Edmonton.

Three-time Olympian Amy Acuff won the women's high jump at 1.88 metres, but it was a struggle.

"I was going psychotic," Acuff said of the wet, cool conditions that hampered her jumping. "I was moving to keep my blood flowing. I was getting crazy thoughts. I was imagining I was underwater, and the bubbles were going up."