Jones finishes last in comeback race

Former Olympic and world champion Marion Jones had a dismal return to the track when she finished last over 400metres in her first race of the season.

Jones, running for the first time since a bleak Olympics in Athens, faded over the final 100m and clocked 55.03 seconds at the Mount San Antonio College Relays in California.

The race was won by Jamaican Novlene Williams in 51.49secs with Australian hurdler Jana Pittman, who is due to marry British athlete Chris Rawlinson, third in 52.33secs.

29-year-old Jones is due in court on Friday in her defamation lawsuit against Victor Conte, the founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO).

Jones took action after Conte appeared on television claiming he had supplied her with performance-enhancing drugs.

Her partner, Tim Montgomery, who is set to appear before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in June with the United States Anti-Doping Agency seeking a lifetime ban for alleged drug offences, also made an appearance.

Montgomery, the father of Jones’ 21-month-old son, ran a leg in the 4x100m relay but, like Jones, he declined to speak to the media.

Maurice Greene, the 100m Olympic champion in Sydney, also ran a relay leg and declared he is capable of setting a new world record – despite his disappointing third place in Athens.

Greene set a world record of 9.79secs in 1999 – a mark which was superseded by Montgomery’s time of 9.78secs in 2002, although that is now under threat because of the drug case.

The 30-year-old revealed it had taken him some time to recover from Athens where he had fully expected to lift his second consecutive Olympic title.

He said: “I had to get away and let myself recover from the Olympic Games. That was a big letdown for me. I went in believing I’d win and expecting to win.”