World Athletics Championships: Quadruple target for Jones

THE SHOE company banners hanging on the approach to the Estadio Olimpico here depict four athletes transformed into supercharged figures through the imagination of a graphic artist - Denise Lewis is a goddess- like whirlwind of running, throwing and jumping, home athlete Reyes Estevez has lightning in his legs, Ato Boldon sprouts wings and Ethiopia's middle- distance marvel Haile Gebrselassie trails flames in his wake.

The seventh IAAF World Championships, which have their opening ceremony today, seek to present the same dynamic image to the world as they bring together the best and brightest of 210 competing nations. But the recent spate of cases involving high-profile athletes accused of illegal supercharging - through doping abuse - means the sport is running into a demoralising headwind.

"In the last couple of weeks our beautiful and lovely sport has been marred," said the defending 100m champion, Marion Jones, yesterday. "We can only hope that our wonderful performances in the next few days will overshadow everything that has happened." Jones herself could play a key role in changing the tone as she attempts to create athletics history by becoming the first competitor to come away from a World Championships with four gold medals.

Her compatriot Carl Lewis took three titles at the 1983 and 1987 Championships, and another American, Michael Johnson, matched that four years ago in Gothenburg when he won in the 200, 400 and 4x400m.

The 23-year-old former basketball star from Raleigh, North Carolina, who has already earned the nickname of "Superwoman" after only two years at the top of the sport, plans to take gold in the 100 and 200m, the long jump and the 4x400m, although she may switch to the shorter relay to complete her haul. All this is by way of being a dress rehearsal for her efforts at next year's Sydney Olympics, where she is after five golds.

"If you follow my career for the next, oh I don't know, seven or eight years, you might see history," she told a trackside interviewer at the CGU British Grand Prix earlier this month. It is a claim which she has the talent to back up. History begins with the first round of the women's 100m at 9.45am local time tomorrow.

Jones's fellow US sprinter Maurice Greene, who demolished the world 100m record in June, is also seeking to make an indelible impression here over the short and long sprints. "I'm very eager to get on the track here," he said yesterday with a broad grin. "They say its very fast. I'm going to see how fast." However, Greene is unlikely to need to approach his record mark of 9.79sec following the withdrawal through injury of his friend and training partner Boldon, who has the second fastest time this year of 9.86sec. The Kansas Cannonball will have a harder time making an impact in the 200m, in which he faces the quadruple Olympic silver medallist Frankie Fredericks in what promises to be one of the highlights of the nine-day event.

Greene's third target here is the 4x100m, in which the main obstacle to his ambitions is likely to be the British quartet of Jason Gardener, Dwain Chambers, Darren Campbell and Julian Golding.

In individual terms, Britain's emerging young sprinters must think in terms of medals, rather than titles, although the quality of opposition, and perhaps the hard Mondo track, could see Gardener and Chambers go even further into sub-10sec territory, and be joined there by Campbell, the European champion, who will be trying to prove a point on behalf of his coach and mentor, Linford Christie, who is currently fighting a doping charge.

Campbell has been particularly bullish about US fallibility in the sprint relay, however, and the prevailing spirit of the team means the event represents one of Britain's best chances of a title.

As the chief coach, Max Jones, is happy to acknowledge, Britain - with only one world title through triple jumper Jonathan Edwards four years ago, and none two years ago in Athens - is desperate for a global gold. He estimates that there are around a dozen British medal contenders. "If we are unlucky, we will get around four or five," he said. "If things go well, like they did in last year's European Championships in Budapest, it will be eight or nine." The question of who might provide that vital victory is even harder to predict as Britain has no one as pre-eminent in their field as either Jones, Greene or - assuming his dodgy hamstring holds up - Michael Johnson in the 400m.

While the young relay quartet nurse their own hopes, the likeliest deliverer of gold may be one of the old campaigners. Edwards, who has been hampered this season by a foot injury, is still world record holder and capable on his day of beating anyone else. He comes to Seville with the memory of his bitter failure to secure the world title two years ago in Athens, a failure he reacted to with intense self-reproach. Revenge would be sweet for him against the Cuban who won the gold on that occasion, Yoelvis Quesada, and indeed the Russian Dennis Kapustin, who beat him to the European Cup gold earlier this year.

Colin Jackson, who won golds alongside Christie and Sally Gunnell six years ago in Stuttgart, is also back to something close to his best after a couple of years in relative wilderness. Jackson's main challenge will come from the American who tops this year's 110m hurdles rankings in 12.98sec, Mark Crear, although he will also be watching closely for the Olympic and world champion, Allen Johnson, who will make a return after injury.

The absence of the world record holder Javier Sotomayor, following a positive test for cocaine, means the high jump is as open as it has been for years, and Britain's Steve Smith, a year after suffering the neck injury which threatened not just his career but his ability to walk, now finds himself as a favourite, heading the world list as he does with a 2.36m jump.

An ankle injury sustained in training last week has hampered the Liverpudlian's preparations, but his will be a strong challenge. The event could also provide Ben Challenger, who set a personal best of 2.30 in winning the World Student and European Under-23 titles this summer, with a valuable launching pad.

Paula Radcliffe's spirited performance in the Zurich 3,000m last week, when she finished far ahead of her two main rivals for the 10,000m title here, Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal and Tegla Loroupe of Kenya, means she is approaching these championships in ideal physical and mental shape. If she can avoid a sprint finish, this could be her big moment.

Denise Lewis also arrives with gold medal possibilities in the heptathlon, claiming to be in better shape than when she won the European title last summer after recovering from the leg injury sustained in May. But the re-emergence of Syria's Olympic champion Ghada Shouaa, and the emergence of France's Eunice Barner, who also plans to ruin Jones's ambitions in the long jump, will put that confidence to a stringent test.