Greene and Jones beaten

Reigning Olympic 100 metres champions Maurice Greene and Marion Jones suffered unexpected defeats over their gold medal winning distances in the Prefontaine Classic meeting in Eugene.

Greene lost to World indoor 60m runner-up Shawn Crawford, while Jones had her wings clipped by former world 200m gold medallist Inger Miller at the IAAF Grand Prix meeting.

Crawford scorched to a personal best time of 9.88 seconds, easily stifling the threat of former world record holder Greene, who clocked 9.93sec and third placed John Capel (9.95sec).

Greene was unperturbed after the surprise defeat to the 26-year-old and said: We gave them a show.

“This is what it’s all about – the fans in the stands.

“This race lets me know I need to work on the middle of my race.

“I kind of rushed it. I need to be patient – I’ve been rushing all year.

“What counts most is in three weeks, when the USA Olympic trials take place in Sacramento.”

Crawford – known as “The Cheetah Man” after racing against a zebra and a cheetah for a television programme last year – also bettered Greene’s stadium record by two hundredths of a second when posting the fastest time in the world this year.

He said: I knew it was a stacked field. You had the former world record holder in there, who has been running extraordinary this year.

“This is a boost of confidence – but I felt like my start could have been better.”

Jones finished fifth in her race and insisted her off-track problems with the USADA investigation into the BALCO drugs scandal, had nothing to do with her well below-par performance.

While Miller won a photo-finish from Gail Devers and Chryste Gaines, the trio all registering 11.05sec, Jones was out of contention with a time of 11.12sec.

Jones explained: “It was a long day – Obviously I’m not very happy with the 100 metres but I have no excuses – I just didn’t have it today.”

Jones, who went on to win the long jump with a leap of 6.93 metres, added: “I refuse to use (BALCO) as an excuse.

“I was pleased to regroup in the long jump and get in a rhythm.”