Arnold back on track with a victory.

Byline: Adam Jude The Register-Guard

After a breakout season last year, Dominique Arnold suffered a string of injuries over the winter that kept him out of competition until Sunday.

He hardly missed a step in his return.

In his first race of the season, Arnold won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.26 seconds at the Road to Eugene '08 track and field meet on a cool afternoon at Hayward Field.

"I'm very pleased," he said. "I wanted to run a little faster, but this is my opener, so I can't complain. You have ideas of how you want to run, but you can't rush anything because this is the first race. I just wanted to take my time and run a good race."

In a journeyman career filled with injuries, Arnold, 33, finally broke through last summer, setting the American record at 12.90 in Switzerland. (China's Liu Xiang set the world record of 12.88 in the same race.)

Two weeks later, Arnold won his first U.S. Outdoor title with a time of 13.10.

A back injury derailed the end of his summer and a leg injury kept him off the track for much of the winter. He began training with hurdles again only five weeks ago.

"I'm just so blessed to be out here running today because it was turmoil," he said. "I hate that to be kind of my legacy, but things happen."

Healthy again, Arnold has pronounced himself fit for another strong summer.

"I had to get a race under my belt," said Arnold, who trains at Pasadena (Calif.) City College with his coach, Larry Wade. "You can practice and practice, and you still won't have the same feeling and the sharpness and intensity it takes in a race. I wanted to get through this."

A former Washington State standout, he won an NCAA title at Hayward Field in 1996. He arrived in Eugene on Thursday and watched the NCAA West Regional Championships, and he said he's looking forward to the U.S. Olympic Trials next year.

"I really like Oregon. I guess I'm biased because I won my NCAA championship here," he said. "I like coming here and doing well. When I haven't, I feel like I'm letting the Northwest down."

LoLo Jones opened the meet with a victory in the women's 100 hurdles. She clipped the fifth hurdle but recovered to finish in 12.88, just ahead of Sheena Johnson (12.90).

"It was kind of a dirty recovery. I had to grit my teeth to the finish line and try to win," said Jones, the former LSU standout who won the U.S. Indoor title this year.

She said she entered the meet in part to get acquainted with the facility and the town in preparation for the Trials.

"I think a lot of people are coming out here trying to see, OK, where will I be warming up? How's the atmosphere? Where will I be eating at?" she said. "Once you get those little things out of the way, you can focus on running. You've already been here, you've done it."

In the men's high jump, Jesse Williams won a jump-off against Marcus Harris, clearing 7-4- 1/4 on his fourth attempt.

"I wasn't really awake at first. I was kind of ticked off, and I should've jumped higher," Williams said.

A three-time NCAA champion at USC, Williams moved to Eugene two weeks ago for training.

"This was my first meet as a resident here, so that was pretty cool," he said. "It's a track town and I'm really excited about being here. I'm looking forward to competing in a lot of home meets here."