LaTasha Colander after her victory in the 100m final at the US Olympic track and field trials in Sacramento on Saturday. Colander won in 10.97 seconds. (Reuters)

Sacramento: Whoever thought of a starting pistol as a smoking gun? For all her public declarations not to be caught up in the BALCO-nisation of the US team, Marion Jones Saturday was eliminated from the Olympic 100 m team the old-fashioned way.

She was soundly beaten in the Olympic trials final, finishing fifth. Though Jones could be considered for the 4x100 relay team at the Athens Games next month, by virtue of having made the 100 final, only the top three in the event are guaranteed of an Olympic race.

That would be LaTasha Colander (10.97), Torri Edwards (11.02) and Lauryn Williams (11.10). Jones ran 11.14, also behind three-time Olympian Gale Devers (11.11).

So after winning five medals — three of them gold, including one in the 100 — at the 2000 Sydney Games, Jones now is left with the long jump (qualifying rounds are Monday) and the 200 m (prelims are Saturday) as her possible individual events in Greece.

She was clearly not happy about this latest development. Stepping briskly off the track into an athletes holding tent, she pulled a white warm-up over her hot pink running attire and strode immediately to a golf cart, engulfed by cameras, boom mikes and four security men.

Once aboard the golf cart, she told reporters: “When I talk to you guys, you have something negative to say. When I don’t talk to you guys, you have something negative to say. I’d much rather not talk and spend time with my son, if you guys have negative things to say. So have a nice day.”

And she was gone.

All of this, of course, played out through the odd, fuzzy prism of the BALCO steroid scandal, which had begun to suggest: If a person is running really fast, does it mean that he or she is a fugitive?

As much as short races, the story seemed to be legal briefs.

Jones’ live-in companion and the father of her year-old son, Tim Montgomery, also was competing Saturday in the first two rounds of the men’s 100. The world-record holder, he ran fourth in both his preliminary (10.21) and quarter final (10.10) heats. Shawn Crawford’s 10.00 led the qualifiers, including 2000 Olympians John Capel (10.01) and Maurice Greene (10.06), into today's semi-finals.

Montgomery is one of six runners who have entered this meet despite impending sanctions for doping violations. Jones, though not accused or charged, is under investigation, prompting her to wage an aggressive fight in the court of public opinion.

The first of that dirty half-dozen was eliminated when Chryste Gaines failed to survive the 100 semis, finishing fifth in 11.30. But still alive among the accused are 400 m twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison, women’s 400 runner Michelle Collins and distance runner Regina Jacobs. Of those, only Calvin Harrison and Jacobs have failed drug tests.