Lolo Jones stumbles, recovers in relay victory

DES MOINES - The long-practiced series of steps spanned only the numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6-7.

But Lolo Jones' approach to the first hurdle Friday at Drake Stadium included a couple of unplanned additions.

'Confirmation,” the relieved former Des Moines Roosevelt star and two-time world champion said after waving a Drake Relays flag to cheers from her hometown crowd. 'It was nine steps. I went for the seven, then it was too much.”

The iffy footwork didn't matter.

Jones and her elite shuttle hurdle teammates Bri Rollins, Vashti Thomas and Queen Harrison sped and soared to a special invitation triumph in a blistering 50.93 seconds.

'It felt good just to get the victory,” said Rollins, the 2013 world champion and American record holder in the 100 hurdles. 'Winning was a great feeling.”

Rollins ran the first leg for Team USA RED as Team Jamaica and Team USA BLUE tried to keep pace. Team USA WHITE, which included Dawn Harper-Nelson, did not start because one runner was injured in warmups.

Jones - who took the baton from Rollins - somehow averted disaster after her slight stumble.

'I made probably the biggest hurdle mistake you can make,” said Jones, who hadn't waved a Drake Relays flag since sweeping to the elite 100-meter hurdles title four straight years through 2008. 'Something messed up and I stutter-stepped and did nine, which is pretty much unheard of.”

So was the time Rollins, Jones, Thomas and Harrison recorded.

According to Track and Field News, the foursome's 50.93 finish ranks second all-time - a mere 15-hundredths off the standard set last April by a team that included Harrison.

'I just wish I would not have messed up at the start because I really feel I'm in good shape,” said Jones, who bulked up to compete in bobsled at the February Winter Olympics in Russia. 'I'm very powerful from bobsled. I do feel like I let me team down a little bit.”

Not much, though.

'The good thing was that she finished the race, because taking nine steps to the first hurdle - if she would have bailed out, man, I would have been mad,” joked Harrison, who won the 100 hurdles at the 2013 Relays.

TERRIFIC TRIO

In a Relays ripe with top-level talent, no one rose up to the event's slogan ('Raise the bar”) better than the elite men's high jumpers. Derek Drouin, Erik Kynard and Dusty Jones all leaped above 7-feet, 8.5-inches - narrowly missing the best top-three effort on U.S. soil. Drouin won with a top jump of 7-10.5.

IOWA PLACEMENT

Northern Iowa's Adam McDonnell took third in the men's javelin, notching a personal best throw of 62.78 meters.

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