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It's Marion Jones again!

Not even a false start could keep Marion Jones from winning her ninth consecutive 100-meter race.

On her second try, Jones, the former pro-basketball star who recently returned to athletics, burst out of the blocks and raced to a three-meter victory at the Goodwill Games at Uniondale, United States.

Although her time of 10.90 seconds was her second-slowest of the year, it was the eighth straight time she had broken 11 seconds. No other sprinter has done it more than six times.

Even more impressive was that Jones was running into a headwind of nearly 3 kph and facing a field in which all the runners had broken 11 seconds -- the fastest field ever assembled.

No one but jones, the second-fastest woman ever in the 100 behind Florence Griffith Joyner, could break 11 seconds in those conditions.

Dan o'Bien, Olympic gold medalist and world record-holder in the decathlon, returned to the event for the first time since the Atlanta Games and turned in a respectable showing.

After the first five events, O'Brien was in second place with 4,575 points, 45 behind Chris Huffins, the reigning US champion and world leader.

"I felt the two years off,'' O'Brien said later. "I wanted to finish in style, but I just didn't get a good rhythm going in the 400. My overall fitness is good and my technique was solid.''

O'Brien in fact was ahead of his Olympic pace after four events and was leading the final event, the 400, into the stretch before finishing third. He also ran well early in the 100, again slowing in the closing meters.

Huffins too was pleased with his overall performance. "This was a very solid day, better than the nationals,'' Huffins said after accumulating 4,620 points. "At the nationals, I didn't do anything outrageous during the second day, so hopefully I can do better tomorrow and get a higher score (than 8,694).''

John Godina, the world leader in the shot put and discuss, won the shot at 70 feet, 4.5 inches (21.4503 meters) after finishing a disappointing third in the discus at 206-2 (62.8396 meters) behind Dmitri Shevchenko (212-8) (64.8208 meters) and Andy Bloom (209-11) (63.9318 meters).

Ato Bolden, the 200 metre world champion from Trinidad and Tobago, blazed around the curve and raced to a two-meter victory over Tyree Washington in 20.15. The time matched the fifth-fastest of the year, even though the race was run into a headwind.

Shana Williams took advantage of the absence of Jones, the world leader in the long jump, and became the first American to win the event at the Goodwill Games, leaping a wind-aided 22-9 (6.9342 meters) to beat russia's Lyudmila Galkina, the 1997 World champion, and greece's Niki Xanthou, the world championship silver medalist.

Deon Hemmings, the 1996 Olympic champion in the women's 400 hurdles, capitalized on world record-holder Kim Batten's mistake at the final hurdle and won in 54.20.

Mozambique's Maria Mutola led nearly all the way in winning her second Goodwill Games women's 800 in 1:58.83, her season's best. Mutola withstood a late charge from Jearl Miles-Clark, second in 1:59.08. Miles-Clark's sister-in-law, Joetta Clark, finished third in the event.

In gymnastics, Dominique Moceanu of the US won the women's all-around title. She finished with a score of 38.662, well in front of Maria Olaru of Romania with 37.975. Another Romanian, Simona Amanar, was third with 37.850.

In synchronized swimming, a US athlete moved in on history. Bill May and partner Kristina Lum were in second place behind Russia after the short programme of duet, and a medal when the event is completed today would be a rare one for a man in an international synchro meet.