UNIONDALE, July 21: After two years away from competition, Dan O'Brien proved he still was the world's greatest athlete. After two races in the Goodwill Games, Marion Jones proved again she was the world's best women's sprinter.O'Brien, who had not competed in a decathlon since winning the 1996 Olympics, showed no rustiness from an injury-enforced lay-off, winning the two-day, 10-event grind in steamy conditions with a meet-record 8,755 points, the best in the world this year, last night."It was sweet to finish," the exhausted O'Brien said. "I didn't know what my fitness level was. I wasn't competition sharp."O'Brien had the best total ever through nine events and said only a stiff wind and a lack of competition cost him a 9,000-point total."But I still proved myself against the best," he said.O'Brien, unbeaten since no-heighting in the pole vault at the 1992 Olympic trials, now has won 11 consecutive decathlons.Jones extended her unbeaten record this year to 24 - including the 100, 200 and400 metres, the 400 relay, the indoor 60 and the long jump - by streaking to victory in the 200 in a meet-record 21.80 seconds. Jones won the 100 in a goodwill-record 10.90 on Sunday night.The 22-year-old blazed around the curve in the lead, widened her advantage early in the stretch before easing near the finish of the 200. Still, she beat world champion Zhanna Pintusevich of Ukraine by six metres.The men's 110 hurdles was much more competitive, as Mark Crear, the 1996 Olympic silver medalist, shook off a false start and won in a record 13.06, beating a field that included Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion Allen Johnson (second, 13.10) and Britain's Colin Jackson, the world record-holder (fourth, 13.17).NCAA champion Angie Vaughn rallied over the final two hurdles to win the women's 100 hurdles in 12.72.Another Goodwill games' record was broken as world record-holder Bernard Barmasai of Kenya won the 3,000-metre steeplechase in 8:14.26. Teammate Moses Kiptanui, the former worldrecord-holder, ruptured his left achilles on the water jump and was helped off the track.
