High Flyers

On Saturday night, the women's 100 m was exciting only in the way of Secretariat's Belmont: a superb racer pulled away, showing the audience what fast looks like--and faster. Jones ran a 10.75 and finished 7 m clear. Greene, by contrast, came out of the drive phase with a fight on his hands. But the focus of this big-meet runner was never sharper, and he accelerated after 40 m like the Ferrari he had been driving around Coogee, crossing the line in 9.87 sec. "He just destroyed us," said Boldon, who hung tough for second.

Marion Jones and Maurice Greene--two very different people had taken two very different routes to arrive within .88 sec. of each other at the same destination: fastest in the world. And then something happened that showed they were true kin under the skin. As Jones, overwhelmed, broke down sobbing under the stands, Greene was in the stadium behaving in an extraordinary manner--not swaggering, but crying too. "Tears of joy," both runners called them later.

Greene's Olympics is nearly over: all that remains for him in Sydney is the 4x100 relay. Jones, of course, is just beginning. Her mission is to win five gold medals. Her next final, the 200 m, isn't until Thursday night, so she can take a bit of a break. "Tonight," she said on Saturday, "I will sleep."

Greene had other ideas.