Marion Jones was beaten again in the long jump while Yelena Isinbayeva raised her own women's pole vault world record at the British Super Grand Prix meeting on Sunday.
Britain's Olympic gold medal hope Paula Radcliffe ran another remarkable race, clocking one of the fastest 10,000m times in history despite the chilly and windy conditions.
Jones, who won three gold medals at the Sydney Olympics, had no answer for the 6.87m jump of world triple jump champion Tatyana Lebedeva and could only manage 6.77m to finish second.
PHOTO: AFP
The American admitted she was distracted by the allegations of doping made against her by the US Anti-Doping Agency, which has also asked her boyfriend Tim Montgomery to answer drug allegations.
But Jones said she was determined to qualify for the US team at the Olympic Trials in Sacramento next month.
"Off the track it is definitely a distraction. It is unfortunate that I am having to deal with this right now but I hope I will get through it and I will be OK," Jones said.
"I am confident that I will make the US trials and I will be in Athens. I have done everything asked of me [including a lie detector test which proved negative] and I'm just going to train and make this Olympic team."
Isinbayeva raised the pole vault record to 4.87m, adding one centimetre to the 4.86m mark she set in Budapest in March.
"I prepared for this. This is not a surprise, it is normal for me," the 22-year-old Russian said.
Isinbayeva set the previous record at the World Indoor Championships, but the sport's governing body IAAF now combines indoor and outdoor world records in this event.
Radcliffe meanwhile ran alone into the wind and with inadequate pacemaking yet still stopped the clock at 30min 17.15sec, the tenth-fastest time ever.
Reigning world champion Kim Collins showed he fully intends to win gold in Athens as he blasted to victory in the 100m.
Collins made a devastating start and was never headed as he posted a season's best of 10.21sec on a track notoriously slow for sprinting while Aziz Zakari of Ghana was third in 10.26sec.
"They were wondering if I was hiding but I wanted to show I'm here," Collins said.
World 400m champion Anna Guevara of Mexico struggled but held on to win in a rare appearance this year in 50.16sec.
Kenenisa Bekele, who has set world records in the 5,000m and 10,000m this year, failed in an attempt to add the 3,000m mark to his collection but the Ethiopian was a runaway winner in 7:41.31.
In the women's 100m hurdles, Nigerian-born Glory Alozie blazed to a Spanish record time of 12.57sec and Britain's Chris Rawlinson sliced through the wind to win the 400m hurdles in an impressive 48.58sec.
Christian Olsson, the world triple jump champion, left it until the last round before producing a winning leap of 17.43m to overhaul Brazil's Jadel Gregorio's effort of 17.23.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but