Women win, men's relay disqualified // Botched baton exchange costs chance for gold

ATHENS, Greece The U.S. women's relay team got it right, asusual. The men didn't, as usual.

After the men bungled a handoff in the first round of the400-meter relay at the World Championships and did not finish, thewomen blazed to an American and championship record victory in theirfinal Saturday.

"We saw what happened to the men and we didn't want that tohappen to us," said Marion Jones, the women's 100-meter champion, whoran the second relay leg and became the first double gold medalist ofthe championships."We wanted the victory for the USA - not just for the women, butfor the men," Gail Devers, the women's anchor, said after theAmericans raced home in 41.47 seconds, the second-fastest ever.Earlier, the men botched a baton pass for the second consecutivechampionships. The foulup came on the first handoff, between BrianLewis and Tim Montgomery.Although the two have worked together on handoffs many timeswhile training at Norfolk State, they failed when it counted."It was a simple misunderstanding of when to call for thestick," said Lewis, who was told about 90 minutes before the racethat he would be competing in his first major championship. "We madea mistake. I can't explain it."Neither could U.S. men's coach Dean Hayes."I couldn't tell if he (Montgomery) left too early," he said.Flubbing relays in big meets is becoming commonplace forAmerican teams in recent years.They were disqualified in the first round of the 1988 OlympicGames and they failed to finish their first-round heat in the 1995World Championships.Last year at the Atlanta Games, the Americans failed to win forthe first time, other than by disqualification, finishing second tothe Canadians. Their Olympic DQ came in the 1960 Rome Games.The women had no such mishaps. Chryste Gaines, Jones, IngerMiller and Devers had clean handoffs in winning by about nine metersand just missing the world record of 41.37 seconds set by the Germannational team in 1985.The U.S. women also have won the last four Olympic golds.The inexperienced Lewis was replacing Jon Drummond, tired afterhaving run the 200 final Friday night. The women kept their lineupthe same throughout the semifinals and final.The failure to finish denied the U.S. team an opportunity togain revenge against Canada. Earlier in the day, Maurice Greene, whowas to run anchor, and Drummond boasted that the Americans would beatthe Canadians and break the world record.The Canadians advanced to today's final, but did not distinguishthemselves, finishing second in their opening-round heat and secondin their semifinal. Nigeria recorded the fastest time of the tworounds, 37.94, an African record.The Americans used a makeshift team in the semifinals of the1,600-meter relay - and got away with it. A foursome of JeromeYoung, Antonio Pettigrew, Chris Jones and 110-meter hurdles championAllen Johnson produced the fastest time, 2 minutes, 59.78 seconds.In other finals, all involving women, Cuba's Ana Quirot sweptpast Mozambique's Maria Mutola with 50 meters left and won her secondstraight 800 title in 1:57.14.Lyudmila Galkina of Russia won the long jump with aworld-leading leap of 23 feet, 1 3/4 inches.Romania's Gabriela Szabo made a big move with 200 metersremaining and won the 5,000 in 14:57.69, as Fernanda Ribeiro ofPortugal, the Olympic champion and defending world titlist, finishedthird.Norway's Trine Hattestad, the 1993 javelin winner, regained hertitle, throwing 225-8.And Japan's Hiromi Suzuki won the women's marathon in 2:29:48 insweltering conditions.British sprinter Linford Christie, 37, announced his retirement.