JACKIE NOT QUITE FINISHED.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

SACRAMENTO - ``Fair jump,'' proclaimed public address announcer Scott Davis after Jackie Joyner-Kersee struck sand in her first competitive leap in two years. Davis wasn't taking editorial license; he was simply letting the swooning Hornet Stadium sellout crowd of 23,211 know the four-time Olympian's long jump was legal.

And yet, there really was no better way to sum up Joyner-Kersee's jumping on this first day of the 2000 Olympic Track and Field Trials.

It was fair.

The reigning American record holder in the long jump mustered a leap of 21-0 3/4 on her third and final attempt to become the eighth qualifier in the 12-woman final on Sunday. Former Thousand Oaks resident Marion Jones, the woman whom Joyner-Kersee was supposed to have passed the torch to three years ago at the U.S. nationals, was fifth with a jump of 21-6 3/4 after leading all qualifiers in the 100 meters roughly two hours earlier.

The past and future queens of U.S. track and field were assigned to different pits, which had the same effect as a mist machine, effectively cooling off any rivalry that exists between them.

When the 38-year-old Joyner-Kersee was introduced at the start of the competition, the crowd's applause lasted longer than had Jones' 100 meters run. It was a fitting way to welcome back the woman whose grace and graciousness had remained unparalleled throughout the 1990s even after her world records in the heptathlon and long jump were surpassed.

Joyner-Kersee, jumping 13th (talk about bad omens) in her flight, attacked the runway on the first jump as though running in shower shoes. Her strides weren't eating huge chunks of the runway as they once did and, predictably, her leap left her hungry. It measured 20-7 3/4, which was four inches less than her jump at a meet in her hometown of East St. Louis in 1998 that had sent her into retirement.

As she dusted herself off, Joyner-Kersee engaged in a dialogue with herself. ``Girl,'' she said, disgusted, ``you've got to come back with something better than that.''

Later, she would say, ``I was hoping to only take one jump. When that plan didn't work out, all you can do is shake your head and come up with another plan.''

Running through the pit for a foul was not what Joyner-Kersee had in mind. Yet that's what happened on her second attempt. All of the sudden the thermometer trackside might as well have read 120 degrees for all the sweat gathering on Joyner-Kersee's brow.

The heat she felt was intense because she knew her first jump wouldn't land her in the finals. It was do-or-go-home-and-cry time for Joyner-Kersee, who has a history of prospering under such pressure. She leaped from seventh place to third on her final effort in the 1996 Olympic final with a jump that covered 22-11 1/2. Her last try Friday, while not as prodigious, represented progress.

On this night, that was good enough.

``Bobby (Kersee, her coach and husband) said I wasn't attacking,'' said Joyner-Kersee, who has been training for her comeback since April. ``I told him, `What do you expect?' The more I was jumping, the better I felt. That made me feel good.''

Goodness knows Joyner-Kersee has nothing left to prove on the track. She is the most decorated U.S. female track athlete with six Olympic medals, three of them gold. She has set world records, seen the world and influenced a generation of athletes that includes Jones, who calls Joyner-Kersee her idol.

Joyner-Kersee said she wants to make a fifth Olympic team not so much because it would give her a place in history alongside American long jumper and sprinter Willye White, but because it would give her one more chance to have fun at an Olympics.

``I never enjoyed an Olympics,'' Joyner-Kersee said.

The regimented routine required to be a champion didn't leave any room for frivolity. She had to stay in her room, stay off her feet, stay focused.

``And the next thing I know I'm on an airplane going back home,'' Joyner-Kersee said.

She vowed it'll be different next time. That is, if there is a next time. One athlete who knows her well cautioned against counting Joyner- Kersee out.

Sprinter/hurdler Gail Devers, who trains with Joyner-Kersee in St. Louis, said, ``I tell people all the time, if Jackie says she's coming back and you see her warming up, you better watch out. That's the bottom line.''

CAPTION(S):

photo U.S. TRACK & FIELD OLYMPIC TRIALS Karen Crouse's column appears in the Daily News four days a week. She can be reached at [phone].

Photo:

Jackie Joyner-Kersee qualified for the women's long jump final on this, her third jump. She leaped 21-0 3/4.

Eric Riseberg/Associated Press