Jones is long way off pace on long awaited comeback

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 Jamaica's n Novlene Williams in 51.49secs with Australian hurdler Jana Pittman third in 52.33secs.

Jones' new coach Steve Riddick had claimed the five-time Olympic medallist may go under 50 seconds reminiscent of the 49.59secs she ran in 2000, prior to triumphs in Sydney.

The 29-year-old is due in court on Friday in her £13million-plus 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 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 said 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Greene set a world record of 9.79secs in 1999 a mark which was superseded by Montgomery's time of 9.78secs in 2002, although that is now under threat because of the drug case.

He said: "I don't chase world records. I just run the race and let the time happen."

Greene 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 Olympics.

"That was a big letdown for me. I went in expecting to win."

Meanwhile Olympic chiefs yesterday expressed concern at a huge drop in the number of out-of-competition drugs tests.

The surprise visits, where doping officials arrive unannounced at an athlete's home, have been credited as being the biggest single deterrent in the campaign against drugs in sport.

Due to financial problems however, the World Anti-Doping Agency more than halved the number of tests they carried out from 5,000 in 2003 to 2,400 last year despite it being an Olympic year.