Track

Dragila's records, Jones' loss tops in 2001

 Michael Johnson ended a career that included five Olympic gold medals, nine world championships and world records at 200 and 400 meters. Alan Webb began a career that might hold similar promise.

 The most remarkable track and field event of 2001, though, took under 11 seconds and can be summed up in three rarely uttered words:

 Marion Jones lost.

 It happened in Edmonton, at the world championships.

 Jones, who had not lost a 100-meter final since 1997, was denied a third consecutive world title when Zhanna Pintusevich-Block won in 10.82 seconds to edge the seemingly invincible American by three-hundredths of a second.

 Days later, Jones won the 200 world title and claimed another gold medal in Edmonton in the 400 relay. Still, she said a loss was inevitable -- if hard to accept.

 "Silver medalist, that's tough for me to hear," Jones said. "It's the first time I've been called that. I guess I'll have to hold on to that for the next couple of years."

 Greene ran the third-fastest time in history, winning the men's 100 in Edmonton in 9.82 seconds, despite a strained left thigh that prevented him from defending his world title in the 200. He hopped across the finish line in the 100.

 "I basically took my body where it wasn't ready to go," said Greene, whose injury prevented him from threatening his world record of 9.79.

 Dragila had no such problems in Edmonton -- or throughout the year, for that matter.

 Dragila, who has dominated the women's pole vault since it became a part of major track and field meets in the late 1990s, broke her own world record twice within a half-hour at Stanford in June.

 At the world championships, Dragila failed to break another record -- but won gold anyway because she had one fewer miss than Svetlana Feofanova of Russia.

 Dragila said it won't be long before she or another woman surpasses 16 feet.

 "I'd like to think my record will last for a long time, but with the other competitors out there, I don't think it's going to last very long," she said. "I think 17 feet might be the ceiling, and I want to keep pushing it to that mark."

 Jones' defeat was not the only shocking loss at the world championships. Haile Gebrselassie lost at 10,000 for the first time since 1993, finishing third.

 Hicham El Guerrouj, upset in the 1,500 at the past two Olympics, won his third straight world title, blowing kisses to the crowd in the final few strides.

 No world records were set in Edmonton. But others were set during the year, ranging from Greene's mark of 6.39 seconds in the indoor 60 meters to Olimpiada Ivanova's mark of 1 hour, 26 minutes, 52.3 seconds in the women's 20-kilometer walk.

 Drugs grabbed a few headlines in Edmonton, especially in the women's 5,000. The race was won by Olga Yegorova, who had tested positive for the endurance-enhancing drug EPO a month earlier but was allowed to compete because the doping test was not carried out properly.

 Competitors scorned Yegorova's participation, and some fans yelled "E-P-O, go, go, go" as the Russian ran to victory.

 Former 100-meter world record holder and 1996 Olympic champion Donovan Bailey ran his last race on home soil in Edmonton, and Johnson retired after dominating the longer sprints for a decade.

 The most heralded newcomer of the year was Webb, who broke Jim Ryun's 36-year-old U.S. record for a mile by a high school runner, finishing in 3 minutes, 53.43 seconds.

 Then he took off for college, becoming a freshman at Michigan and destined perhaps to become the best American middle-distance runner in years.