Montgomery betters world
100 metres record
American Tim Montgomery stole the show at the Grand Prix finals on Saturday when he broke the world 100 metres record by one-hundredth of a second to confirm beyond doubt he is the world number one.
In the absence of previous world record holder Maurice Greene, Montgomery streaked across the line in 9.78 seconds with a following wind of exactly the allowable limit of two metres a second.
Greene, who was present at the Charlety Stadium but did not compete because of fatigue, set his record three years ago in Athens.
The record was also enough to give Montgomery the overall men's title ahead of Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj. The women's title went to Marion Jones, who won the women's 100 metres in 10.88 seconds.
Montgomery's achievement overshadowed all other performances on a warm, sunny afternoon.
The runner-up to Greene at last year's World championships, he comfortably defeated Britain's European gold medallist Dwain Chambers. Chambers clocked 9.87 seconds to better compatriot Linford Christie's European record.
"I just wanted to beat Chambers," Montgomery said.
He is now unquestionably the fastest man in history as Canadian Ben Johnson also clocked 9.79 in the 1988 Seoul Olympics final before he was disqualified after a positive drugs test.
El Guerrouj, who needed to clock 3:30.36 to finish ahead of world 400 metres hurdles champion Felix Sanchez, completed the race in 3:29.27 but was pushed out of first place by Montgomery.
Sanchez won the one-lap hurdles in 47.62, two-tenths of a second ahead of France's former world champion Stephane Diagana.
Three times world champion Gail Devers, the only athlete who could have taken the women's title from Jones, won the 100 metres hurdles in 12.51 seconds. At 35, Devers, who has also won consecutive Olympic 100 metres titles, is now officially a veteran and set a world veteran's best of 12.40 in Lausanne this year.
"I had a little problem in the middle of the race when I was too close to the seventh hurdle," Devers said. "But 12.51 is a good performance when you run in September."
Olympic 5,000 metres champion Gabriella Szabo of Romania came from third to first in the final 30 metres to win the women's 3,000 in 8:56.29.
Mexico's Ana Guevara, one of four athletes to share the Golden League jackpot this year, won the women's 400 metres comfortably in 49.90 ahead of Jamaican Lorraine Fenton.
