Training partner Jones's biggest rival

Triple Olympic champion Marion Jones does not have to look far each day to find her chief rival in the women's 100 metres.

Training partner Chandra Sturrup of the Bahamas likely will be her top challenger when Jones begins her quest here Sunday for a third world title.

"It's nice when you have somebody who is really pushing you whom you see every day, whom you train with," said Jones of world indoor 60-metre champion Sturrup, who helped the Bahamas defeat a Jones-anchored 4x100-metre relay team at the Sydney Olympics.

"We have the best situation," Jones said. "She knows my weaknesses and I know hers."

Not that Jones has many weaknesses in the sprints. The 25-year-old American has won 42 consecutive finals in the 100 metres and 26 in the 200. She has not lost a 100-metre final since 1997 and a 200-metre final since 1995.

Jones won world titles in the 100 metres and 4x100-metre relay at her first world championships in Athens, then repeated the 100 title two years later at Seville before back spasms in the semifinals of the 200 ended her dreams of winning another championship that year.

Wants 200 Title
"It is important for me to retain my 100-metre title, but more important is walking away with that 200-metre title," said Jones.

Although her times in the 100 and 200 metres are the year's best, they do not match her magnificent 1998 performances when she became the second-fastest woman ever behind compatriot Florence Griffith Joyner in both sprint events.

Jones and her coach say a slow start in training after the lengthy 2000 season has been responsible for her slow times. Both say that could change here this weekend.

"I think I am quite capable of running sub-10.8," Jones said.

The key will likely be her first 30 metres. She stumbled badly at her last meeting in London, but recovered to win the race comfortably over Sturrup and world 200-metre champion Inger Miller.

"She is having problems with the start, but I think Marion wants to run fast, and she will at the world championships," said Trevor Graham, who coaches both Jones and Sturrup.

Jones dominates the year's 100 metres world list at 10.84 seconds with Ukrainian Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, second to Jones at the 1997 world championships, nearly a tenth of a second behind at 10.93 seconds.

Cameroon's Myriam Mani and American Chryste Gaines are ahead of Sturrup on the list, but the 29-year-old believes she can take the silver.

"I think the field is very competitive," Sturrup said. "But the way I have been running this year, I think it should be a showdown between Marion and myself."

She has worked with Graham and Jones for three years now.

"I do not see training with Marion as my competitor," said the Bahamian, who is running only the 100 metres here. "We have the same coach, but she does what she has to do in her race, and I do what I have to do, so it is not a great deal to me.

"If I started focusing on Marion Jones, I would be out of my race."

The heats and quarter-finals of the 100 metres are on Sunday with the semifinals and final on Monday.

Greene Favourite
The main contenders for the title of world's fastest man breezed through the early heats without too much trouble.

Maurice Greene, Tim Montgomery, Ato Boldon and Dwain Chambers all have a chance of winning the final. But Greene, the Olympic and world champion and world record holder, is still favourite after recovering from a tendinitis problem in his left knee.

He has not lost a major title over 100 metres in four years and will be trying desperately to match Carl Lewis's record of three consecutive world titles at the distance.

The men's hammer final also takes place on Sunday with Poland's Olympic champion Szymon Ziolkowski qualifying for the final with the best throw of 81.85 metres.

The top two throwers in the world this year, Japan's Koji Murofushi and Adrian Annus of Hungary, have both disappointed in major championships. Murofushi qualified for the final with a throw of 78.06 metres and Annus managed 78.57.

Karsten Kobs of Germany, who celebrated winning the 1999 world title in Seville by diving into the steeplechase water jump, did not start the event.

In the women's shot put Olympic champion Yanina Korolchik of Belarus and silver medallist Russian Larisa Peleshenko are among the favourites for the title.

Nobody has hit the 21 metre mark this season but Peleshenko set the world leading mark of 20.79 in July at the age of 37, while Korolchik has the second-best put of 20.29.