Jones fails to qualify in 100.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

SACRAMENTO - Four years ago, Marion Jones won five medals in the Olympic Games, three of them gold.

Suddenly, the prevailing question in track and field isn't the number of medals Jones will win in Athens next month, but whether she'll get there at all.

Saturday, the embattled Olympic champion finished fifth in the 100 meters in the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials before 20,440 at Hornet Stadium.

The race was won by 27-year-old LaTasha Colander, who four years ago won the 400 meters in the Trials and who was clocked in a personal best of 10.97 seconds; the second and third Olympic team berths went to Torri Edwards and University of Miami sprinter Lauryn Williams.

"Athens, Athens, here I come, Athens," Colander said she was thinking as she crossed the finish line.

Jones was fifth, her same place in the Pre Classic last month, in 11.14 seconds, slower than the 11.12 she ran at Hayward Field.

She's not out of chances to make the Olympic team; she's also entered in the 200 and the long jump in the Olympic Trials.

However, Jones, 28, has yet to display the stamina required by the longer sprint. And in an Olympic Trials in which the American record-holder, Jeff Hartwig, no-heighted in the pole vault prelims, and the hottest shot putter in the world, Christian Cantwell, fouled on five of his six throws and didn't make the team Saturday, the long jump isn't a sure thing.

A relay berth would be possible for Jones, but she'd have to participate in U.S. relay camps prior to the Games, and given the ongoing doping controversy that follows her, would she welcome that - or be welcomed?

In the middle of Saturday's final, Jones looked like a sprinter without another gear; in an event in which "separation" is vital, the only separation she showed was when she bolted past the media afterward, her path cleared by a burly bodyguard, a throng of TV cameras and reporters in pursuit.

"When I talk, you guys have something negative to say," Jones was quoted as saying. "When I don't talk, you have something negative to say.

"I'd rather not talk, and spend time with my son."

Jones is barely a year removed from giving birth to the son she shares with sprinter Tim Montgomery, the world record-holder at 100 meters who faces a lifetime ban for alleged doping violations. Considering that Jones returned to competition only seven months after Monty's birth, her unspectacular performances - she hasn't broken 11 seconds all season - might not be considered that surprising in less troubled times.

But Jones is at the center of the storm created by the federal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratories Co-Operative, accused of distributing performance-enhancing drugs to top athletes in track and field and other sports. As a result of that probe, four athletes have been notified by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that they face lifetime suspensions; two other athletes in the Trials also face suspensions after allegedly testing positive for banned substances last year.

However, the six cases remain unresolved, pending hearings and rulings, allowing the athletes to compete here, and raising questions about what would happen if they made the U.S. Olympic team and then were subsequently suspended.

One of those athletes, Chryste Gaines, didn't make the 100-meter final, and Montgomery barely qualified for the semis in the men's 100 meters. Yet to compete are 400-meter runners Calvin Harrison, Alvin Harrison and Michelle Collins and 1,500-meter runner Regina Jacobs.

Jones, who has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, has received no such notification of charges against her, but USADA has questioned her more than once and not declared her case closed.

"I wasn't focused on Marion," said Colander, who trains with Jones' former coach, Trevor Graham. "When the Olympics come every four years, you give all you got. ... Marion is a great person and a great athlete. I focused on myself. I really didn't see her. I was focused on me."

Asked whether athletes resent the media focus on the BALCO case and the athletes involved, Colander said: "We'll answer any questions you have, but we look at the positive things. It's time to go to Athens. The door of opportunity has been opened, and we're going through."

Jones became the rare athlete who transcends sport when she won three gold medals in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She appeared on covers of Ebony and Vogue, guested with Oprah Winfrey, and became a major part of the image of USA Track & Field, an effervescent ambassador for the sport.

Nike, her chief sponsor, featured her in a two-page ad in the recent Sports Illustrated.

Such is her prominence that the New York Times and USA Today were among publications that published lengthy profiles prior to the Olympic Trials. One financial expert was quoted as saying that being kept out of the Olympics would cost her at least $2.5 million and perhaps $5 million in lost business oppportunities immediately.

In defending herself, Jones has hired a high-powered public relations firm, and taken the offensive. She's had it announced that she passed a lie-detector test. She's requested public hearings, and asked that her grand jury testimony be released to the public. She's threatened to sue any entity that prevents her from competing in the Olympic Games absent a positive drug test.

She's got two more events to keep that matter from being rendered a moot point.

CAPTION(S):

LaTasha Colander broke the tape first in the 100 meters, leading the three-woman U.S. contingent into the Olympics. "Athens, Athens, here I come, Athens." - LaTASHA COLANDER, U.S. 100-METER CHAMP