Date:03/06/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/06/03/stories/2005060309211900.htm

Sport - Athletics

Jones finishes behind Sturrup again

MILAN: Marion Jones' latest race was over as soon as it began. The former `Wonderwoman' turned doping suspect was slow out of the blocks and finished runner-up to Chandra Sturrup for the second time in four days.

Jones ran 11.67s in the 100m to finish a quarter of a second behind the Bahamian at the Grand Prix Regione Lombardia meeting on Wednesday.

``It was difficult to recover. My race was kind of over from there,'' Jones said. ``I just sat there in the blocks and that was the difference. Once I came up running, everybody was two, three steps ahead of me.''

Sturrup, who led from the start, also beat Jones on Sunday at the FBK Games in Hengelo, Netherlands. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Uganda's Dorcus Inzikuru broke the world record in the rarely contested women's 2,000m steeplechase.

Inzikuru's time of 6 minutes, 4.46 seconds improved on the old mark of 6:11.84 set by Russia's Marina Pluzhnikova on July 25, 1994, at St. Petersburg. Jamaica's Patrick Jarrett was a surprising winner in the men's 100m, clocking 10.36. — AP