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Tears, and gold, for Jackie

Crying before the final event -- the 800m run that climaxes the two day, seven event heptathlon -- crying after the event, Jackie Joyner-Kersee pulled off a near impossile win in the heptathlon event of the Goodwill Games, at Uniondale, New York, to end her athletics career on the greatest of highs.

Her performance, and the sentimentality attached to Jackie's final outing, overshadowed even Michael Johnson, who anchored the US 4x400 meters relay team to a world record.

Johnson, who has been struggling with a hip rotation problem earlier this year, hit sizzling form to run a lightning last leg in 43.1 seconds, to see his team of four home in 2:54.20, 0.09 seconds inside the world record, set by the US team itself, five years ago.

That excitement paved the way for Joyner-Kersee's heroics. Heading into the final event, the queen of track had a lead of 46 points, but then the 800 is not her pet event.

In tears before the start of the race and obviously overcome by the emotionalism of the moment, Joyner-Kersee regained her composure to keep close enough to the overall second-placed Dedee Nathan to gain the necessary points for victory, and a final tally of 6,502 points.

As per the points system, it was not enough for Nathan to win the race, she had to shade her rival by three and a half seconds margin, minimum, to wrest the gold. However, when the tape was breasted, less than two seconds seperated the women, and Jackie was the winner by a 23-point margin.

She then broke down and cried, while the spectators seemed unsure whether to put their hands together for the legend, or wipe away their own tears.

Husband and coach Bob Kersee, seated in the stands, emulated his wife and burst into tears, then raced out onto the track, sneaked up behind the sobbing Jackie, and dumped water on her before sweeping her into a hug.

"I don't believe it," Jackie told him.

"I don't believe it either," said her spouse.

Joyner Kersee, the greatest all-round woman athlete in history, has won two Olympic and two world titles as well as one Olympic and two world long jump gold medals.

She will compete, for one last time, at a special meeting named in her honor on Saturday before retiring from track and field forever.

Earlier in the evening, Maurice Greene took the United States to victory in the 4x100 relay and recorded another satisfying personal victory over Canadian Olympic 100m champion Donovan Bailey.

The American sprinters are still to get over their defeat by Canada in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Adding an undercurrent to the national feeling is the growing personal clash between Greene and Bailey.

For Greene, there was personal satisfaction as he ran the last leg, against Bailey and for the second straight day, the American sprinter who, after beating Bailey in the 100m individual yesterday had proclaimed himself the fastest on earth, raced away from his rival.

"The US is back, and it feels great to win the relay at home," said Greene after the race, adding, "You always get a kick out of beating the man."

The sprint relay, exciting in its way, proved to be merely the curtain-raiser to the heroics of the 4x400 relay team.

Jerome Young ran a fine first leg in 44.2, handing off to coach and former world champion Antonio Pettigrew, who in his turn clocked 43.2, handing over to Tyree Washington for the third lap.

Washington did the lap in 43.5, handing over to double Olympic champion Michael Johnson, who had earlier won the individual 400m here, clocking 43.1.

The rest was history. "The guys ran great legs," Johnson said later. "I didn't want it to go to waste, didn't want to let the guys down. I just wanted to break the world record."

It was Jackson, incidentally, who had anchored the earlier record-breaking side as well, at the 1993 World Championships at Stuttgart, Germany.

The other notable winner on the last day of the Goodwill Games was Cuba's Javier Sotomayor, the world record holder, 1992 Olympic gold medallist and two-time world champion, who outduelled 1996 Olympic gold winner Charles Austin to take the high jump at 7-7 3/4 (2.33 metres).

Both jumpers cleared that height and stopped, but Sotomayor won the event on fewer misses -- this, despite competing with a tender left ankle that hampered him on his approach stride.