Drama on a scale undreamed of by the organisers came to the world track and field championships in Seville last evening with an injury to the American sprinter Marion Jones.
Jones, who arrived in these championships with the glittering prospect of winning four gold medals, left the stadium on a stretcher after collapsing on the track in the second semi-final of the 200 metres championship.
A vast, collective groan reverberated around the arena as the American fell and lay on the track, holding the lower part of her back for some minutes before being taken to a medical room for treatment.
C J Hunter, her husband who won the shot putt championship on Sunday, was in the stand when the injury happened and immediately made his way on to the track to escort her down the tunnel.
Later, Charlie Wells, the American team manager, said Jones had been examined by three doctors and the injury had been diagnosed as a spasm in her back. He said that, after treatment, Jones was able to walk out of the stadium.
If the original diagnosis, a damaged muscle in her back, is confirmed, it will also put her out of Sunday's 4x100 metres relay final and leave her with just one medal from the championships.
Just as pertinent, it could put her out of contention for a share of the Golden League booty in which she is one of only four athletes still in with a chance of the $1 million jackpot. She shared this award with Hicham El Guerrouj and Haile Gebrselassie last year, when her prize money amounted to $753,000, a record for a woman athlete.
Early indications were that the injury is a legacy of her ill-fated challenge for the long jump title on Monday evening. She looked in trouble almost from the start of last night's race and had already become hopelessly unbalanced as she attempted to run the bend.
The race was won by the Jamaican Merlene Frazer in 22.18 seconds. The first semi-final went to Jones's team-mate, Inger Miller, in 22.17.
Colin Jackson is the 110 metres hurdles champion for the second time in six years after producing a thrilling dash off the last barrier to edge out Cuba's Anier Garcia and America's Duane Ross in 13.04.
It was handsome vindication of Jackson's decision to approach the championships in low-key fashion after damaging a foot in June. But near the finish it seemed as if he'd got it wrong.
Garcia, in front with perhaps no more than five or six metres to go, initially thought he'd won. But after watching nervously as the finish was replayed on television the Welshman was able at last to embark on his lap of honour.
France's Stephane Diagana chose an opportune occasion to remind us of his old power when running the faster of the two semi-finals in the men's 400 metres hurdles. Diagana was timed at 48.18, with the other winner, Joey Woody of the United States, recording 48.55 in beating Poland's Pawel Januszewski.
In the final of the women's event, a photo finish revealed that Daimi Pernia of Cuba had beaten the defending champion, Nezha Bidouane of Morocco, on the line in 52.89, with the Olympic titleholder Deon Hemmings of Jamaica a close up third.
For a brief minute or so Bidouane thought she had stayed on well enough to keep her title, but gradually the bitter truth dawned and she conceded defeat in a generous handshake with her conqueror.
British hopes of a double last evening went disastrously wrong when, after a brilliant first effort of 17.48 metres, Johnathan Edwards could finish only third in the triple jump final behind Charles Michael Friedek of Germany and the Bulgaria's Rostislav Dimitrov.
Edwards, tormented by fitness problems this season, failed to improve on those opening figures and Friedek, suitably encouraged, grew to the point where he broke the sand at 17.59 metres on his fourth visit to the pit to put himself out of reach of the opposition.
Maurice Greene's challenge for a sprint double is still alive and thriving after he won the first semi-final of the 200 metres, pulling up in 20.10. Few here have coped better with the pressures of championship competition than the 100 metres record holder, and while the Nigerian Francis Obikwelu was inside 20 in beating Poland's Marcin Urbas in the other semi-final, the odds will still be on the American.
German Skurygin enriched a great Russian tradition in the 50 kilometres walk by defying the intense early morning heat and the character of some of his more abrasive rivals to win by more than three minutes from Ivano Brugnetti of Italy in three hours 44.23.
Jeff Cassin, making his first appearance for Ireland, was second last of the 30 finishers in 4:20.43.
No fewer than 11 of those who started out on the tortuous journey fell victim to the weather and an identical number were caught out for "lifting" by race judges dotted around the course.
Tomas Dvorak is still the undisputed world's greatest all-round athlete after the world record-holder retained his decathalon title following a gruelling two-day competition. The Czech Republic's Dvorak scored 8,744 points to hold off the surprise challenge of 21-year-old Briton Dean Macey (8556), as American champion Chris Huffins slipped into the bronze medal position following a weary run in the final event, the 1,500 metres.
