Greene opens European season

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By John Mehaffey

PARIS (Reuters) - Olympic 100 metres champion Maurice Greene returns to a track where he has enjoyed success apart from last year's world championships when he opens his European campaign at the Paris Golden League meeting on Friday.

Greene, who turns 30 on the day of the third Golden League competition of the season, clocked under 10 seconds at the Paris meeting in 2001 and again the following year. He was injured in the semi-finals at last year's world championships and lost his world title to Kim Collins from St Kitts and Nevis.

This year Greene disclosed that he had broken a leg when he was thrown from his motorcycle in Los Angeles in February, 2002, which he said helped account for his fluctuations in form since he won the world title in Edmonton, Canada, the previous year.

Although he is only the third fastest man in the world this year, the American will start a clear favourite in next month's Athens Olympics after clocking a wind-assisted 9.78 seconds this season and finishing first in the U.S. Olympic trials in 9.91.

"My shape is good," he told a news conference on Thursday after arriving in Paris from the United States the previous day. "The only thing I'm going to be fighting tomorrow is acclimatising myself. But I think I will be fine."

Greene said he had never considered taking time off after his accident and refused to make any excuses for his disappointing form last year.

"Of course it's difficult to lose but, like I always said, there's always a reason why," he said.

"I don't make excuses, if I feel tough enough to win I feel tough enough to lose. There are no excuses when you step on the line and you give it all."

GREENE'S CONFIDENCE

Greene's confidence is partly a result of Collins' winning time in Paris last August. The surprise victor clocked 10.07 seconds, the first world or Olympic final for 20 years won in a time over 10 seconds.

He also enjoys running in Athens, winning the first of his three world titles there in 1997 and setting the previous world record of 9.79 in the Greek capital two years later. The current world record holder Tim Montgomery, who took a hundredth of a second off Greene's mark in Paris two years ago, failed to qualify for the Games and has also received a letter from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency alleging doping violations.

The five athletes who remain in contention for the $1 million jackpot, which is shared among competitors who win each of their events in the six Golden League meetings, have confirmed they will compete on Friday.

Twice world champion Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic will compete in the 400 metres hurdles, world outdoor and indoor gold medallist Christian Olsson of Sweden takes part in the triple jump and Olympic and world champion Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania has entered the discus.

In the women's events double world gold medallist Hestrie Cloete competes in the high jump and Tonique Williams-Darling of the Bahamas runs the 400 metres.

Williams-Darling provided one of the many upsets of the season when she defeated Mexican world champion Ana Guevara at the Rome Golden Gala. Guevara's last previous loss had been her third place at the 2001 Edmonton world champions.

Sanchez, whose last loss was also in 2001, alluded to Guevara's defeat on Thursday, pointing out that Olympic 100 women's champion Marion Jones, world 1,500 metres champion Hicham El Guerrouj and Olympic and world women's 800 metres gold medallist Maria Mutola had all been beaten this season.

"I'm the last one," he said. "And I'm going to lose one day."

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