No joy for Jones as long jump and relay go begging
Women's long jump: Marion Jones just couldn't catch a break in the Olympic Stadium last night.
Amid all the excitement it went largely unnoticed that Marion Jones finished only fifth in the long jump, her one individual event at these games.
She was brushed aside by a Russian clean sweep led by Tatyana Lebedeva, who jumped 7.07 metres. Irina Simagina and Tatyana Kotova both achieved 7.05m but Simagina claimed the silver since her second-best effort was longer.
Britain's Jade Johnson did not let herself down with a personal best of 6.80m but ultimately left disappointed at finishing only seventh. "I don't do seventh," she said. "It has to be top five or I'm not happy."
Jones must then have thought she was cursed as she lost out on what should have been a guaranteed gold medal with the United States 4x100m relay team, who had expressed confidence before the race that they could break the world record set by East Germany in 1985. Instead the baton was dropped and Jamaica came through for victory ahead of Russia and France.
Jones, despite screaming "Wait, wait, stop" as she completed the second leg, could not reach the third runner on the team Lauryn Williams at the hand-over. When she finally made contact at the fourth attempt, it was far too late and Williams did not even attempt to catch up with the opposition.
"I exceeded my wildest dreams in a negative sense," Jones said. "We were looking for great things to happen, they didn't happen today. It's extremely disappointing, words can't put it into perspective."
If the relay fiasco was bad enough, the Olympic men's basketball gold will not be going to the US either for the first time since 1988. Instead Argentina will meet Italy in today's final, after they beat the so-called Dream Team 89-80 yesterday. The best the United States can hope for now is a bronze medal from the play-off for third place against Lithuania.
Manu Ginobili scored 29 points as Argentina repeated their feat of 2002 when they became the first team to defeat a squad of NBA players.
Italy scored their own upset by beating Lithuania 100-91 in the other semi-final on the back of 31 points from Gianluca Basile.
She was brushed aside by a Russian clean sweep led by Tatyana Lebedeva, who jumped 7.07 metres. Irina Simagina and Tatyana Kotova both achieved 7.05m but Simagina claimed the silver since her second-best effort was longer.
Britain's Jade Johnson did not let herself down with a personal best of 6.80m but ultimately left disappointed at finishing only seventh. "I don't do seventh," she said. "It has to be top five or I'm not happy."
Jones must then have thought she was cursed as she lost out on what should have been a guaranteed gold medal with the United States 4x100m relay team, who had expressed confidence before the race that they could break the world record set by East Germany in 1985. Instead the baton was dropped and Jamaica came through for victory ahead of Russia and France.
Jones, despite screaming "Wait, wait, stop" as she completed the second leg, could not reach the third runner on the team Lauryn Williams at the hand-over. When she finally made contact at the fourth attempt, it was far too late and Williams did not even attempt to catch up with the opposition.
"I exceeded my wildest dreams in a negative sense," Jones said. "We were looking for great things to happen, they didn't happen today. It's extremely disappointing, words can't put it into perspective."
If the relay fiasco was bad enough, the Olympic men's basketball gold will not be going to the US either for the first time since 1988. Instead Argentina will meet Italy in today's final, after they beat the so-called Dream Team 89-80 yesterday. The best the United States can hope for now is a bronze medal from the play-off for third place against Lithuania.
Manu Ginobili scored 29 points as Argentina repeated their feat of 2002 when they became the first team to defeat a squad of NBA players.
Italy scored their own upset by beating Lithuania 100-91 in the other semi-final on the back of 31 points from Gianluca Basile.
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