Flawed technique and fate deny Jones

After commanding performances to win the 100-200 double, Jones lost to a superior technician in Heike Drechsler in the long jump. Two indifferent changes left her with too much to do in the final leg of the 4×100.

The 24-year-old American also had to contend with relentless media attention after the revelation that her husband C.J. Hunter had tested positive for massive amounts of the steroid nandrolone.

With two golds and two bronzes, Jones redeemed her Games on the final night with a startling third leg in the winning 4×400 relay team.

She also won new admirers with her grace after losing to Dreschler following four foul jumps in the long jump final.

“I can tell my grandchildren I competed against one of the greatest long jumpers of all time,” she said. “Heike Drechsler deserved to win.”

Drechsler crowns career: Drechsler at 35 became the first woman to win the Olympic long jump title twice. Her victory crowns a career which began with a gold medal at the first World Championships in 1983 and includes three world long jump records and two over 200 metres.

Sydney in September was not the ideal environment for a big athletics meeting with gusting winds and occasionally frigid temperatures handicapping the athletes.

But the magnificent Olympic Stadium still staged two of the great races of all time.

Haile Gebrselassie, his trademark smile replaced by an agonised grimace, held off Paul Tergat by nine-hundredths of a second to retain the 10,000 title.

Hicham El Guerrouj, the world champion and record holder, collapsed in tears after his dream of the Olympic 1,500 title vanished for the second time when he was outsprinted by Noah Ngeny.

Cheers for Freeman: The biggest cheers were generated by Cathy Freeman, under overwhelming pressure after lighting the Olympic Flame, who won the women’s 400 metres for Australia and her native Aboriginal race.

Sydney was the final Games for Michael Johnson, who won the men’s 400 then anchored the 4×400 relay team to victory.

Johnson has won nothing but gold in five Olympic and nine world finals, although the great imponderable remains the dream race that never happened.

Last year his fellow-American Maurice Greene won the world 200 title in Johnson’s absence and the pair, who make no secret of their mutual dislike, were scheduled to clash at the U.S trials in July.

Neither finished the final after pulling up lame, denying Johnson a chance to defend the Olympic title and Greene the opportunity of a 100-200 double.

Another athlete unlikely to be seen on an Olympic stage is Jan Zelezny who won his third consecutive javelin title at the age of 34. Zelezny’s supple, slingshot action has propelled the javelin to five world records but has also bequeathed the Czech recurring back and elbow injuries.

Two women’s events made their debut in Sydney, the hammer and the pole vault.

The hammer began farcically when officials marched the world champion Mihaela Melinte away from the circle before the qualifying after informing her she had tested positive for nandrolone. It ended with a gold medal to 17-year-old Pole Kamila Skolimowska.

Californian Stacy Dragila added the first Olympic pole vault gold medal to her first women’s indoor and outdoor titles.

Earlier in the year, Dragila extended the world record to 4.63 metres amd Trine Hattestad threw the redesigned women’s javelin a record 69.48 metres before an ecstatic home crowd in Oslo.

Hattestad won the Olympic title at her fifth Games and, all ambitions satisfied, announced her retirement.

Ethiopia, an impoverished nation in a troubled continent, enjoyed a triumphant year.

Derartu Tulu outsprinted compatriot Gete Wami in the women’s world cross country long-course race then repeated her 1992 victory in the Olympic 10,000 metres final.

Kutre Duleche won the women’s short-course cross country race, Gebrselassie retained the 10,000 title, Millon Wolde won the 5,000 and Gezahgne Abera completed the year with victory in the men’s marathon.