The Jones myth explodes under Ukrainian fire

The landscape of women's sprinting has been altered, perhaps for good, by the achievement of Zhanna Pintusevich-Block in ending Marion Jones's winning run of 54 victories in the 100 metres here on Monday night.

The shock which occurred here was easily the greatest there could have been at these championships and perhaps one of the greatest in any World Championships.

The American defending champion, unbeaten in four years, was clearly surprised at losing twice in the space of an hour and a half in the blazing heat of the Commonwealth Stadium. But her reaction was muted compared to that of the woman from Ukraine, who sank to the track in tears. Four years earlier she had done the same thing at the World Championships in Athens, having started a lap of honour to celebrate victory over Jones, only to discover that she had been beaten by two-hundredths of a second.

"I'm in shock," Pintusevich-Block said. "I've been thinking and dreaming of this moment for four years – ever since Athens 1997. It is the happiest day of my life, and it is better than ever that it should come in a place where there are a lot of Ukrainian people." She added that she had gained confidence from the semi-final victory which had ended Jones's run, an achievement she signalled three strides from the line with a finger raised to the sky.

"The whole season I have been really close to Marion, so I knew everything is possible," said Pintusevich-Block, who had come within five-hundredths of a second of beating Jones in Lausanne the previous month. "I think I did everything perfect," she said.

Now women sprinters have a new target in Pintusevich-Block, who grew up in Kiev, where her parents are retired bookmakers, and moved to the United States three years ago and now lives with her husband, Mark Block, who is a sports agent and coach, in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Defeat rounded off a year of turmoil for the 25-year-old former NCAA basketball player, who won five Olympic medals in Sydney, including three golds, against a background of suspicion caused by the emergence of a positive doping case involving her husband, the shot putter C J Hunter, from whom she has subsequently divorced.

"I know everyone is going to be fishing around, trying to find something," she said. "But I don't think there is any one factor to attribute times that are a bit slower this year." The statistics show that Jones's best this year is 10.84, compared with 1998, when she recorded five times of 10.71 or 10.72. But her 10.75 was the only sub-11sec time at Sydney, while here both Pintusevich and the bronze medallist, Ekaterini Thanou, ran two sub-11sec races each.

"I thought I had a good start," Jones said. "In the middle of the race I broke down a bit. It happens sometimes in sport. It doesn't happen often to me." But it seems as if it is likely to happen a little more often now.

'The biggest upset since the tortoise beat the hare'

There was a stunned global reaction to the defeat of Marion Jones in the 100 metres final by Zhanna Pintusevich-Block at the World Championships.

"It's the biggest upset in this sport since the tortoise beat the hare," wrote the Edmonton Sun yesterday.

USA Today likened Pintusevich-Block's victory to that of the New York Jets over the Baltimore Colts in the 1969 Super Bowl, and America's ice hockey win over the Soviet Union at the 1980 winter Olympics.

Denmark's Ekstra Bladet headline said: "Jones Sensationally Knocked Off The Throne", while Norway's VG described the result as "Super Marion's Shock Defeat".

In Spain, El Mundo Deportivo reported "Jones Loses the World Crown". Marca referred to Pintusevich-Block as "The new 100m queen".

While most publications have called the result a shock, at least one writer described the outcome as only a mild surprise.

"She did not break 11 seconds until late June, and then clocked just 10.96 in Rome," Tim Layden, a writer for Sports Illustrated, wrote. "To an inattentive public, Jones' loss is a shock. To track nuts who have been paying attention, it is a surprise but nothing more."