Athletics: In the end, Marion Jones's Olympics was reduced to an emotional display of sisterhood with her relay team-mates, who crashed out in memorable fashion last night writes Keith Duggan in the Olympic Stadium

The USA team went into the 4x100 breathing hard on the record time of 41.37 seconds set by the German Democratic Republic in 1980. Instead of a redemptive gold medal for Jones, her Olympic appearance was inglorious. Running the second leg, she was involved in a botched baton-exchange with Lauryn Williams and the team failed to finish.

As Jamaica finished in the gold placing, cruising in on a time of 41.73, the Americans walked disconsolately from the track.

The mishap was the conclusion of a miserable return to big-time athletics for Jones, who had earlier failed to make any real impact in the long jump final. Her best jump of 6.85 metres bore little resemblance to her season's best of 7.11 and was only enough for a fifth-place finish. The event was dominated by the Russian trio led by Tatyana Lebedeva, who took gold with a jump of 7.07.

Curiously, the long jump and relay had disappointed Jones in Sydney four years ago, when she managed bronze in both. Back then, though, she was the jewel of the American track team whereas four years later she returned as a bit of a misfit, qualifying for the long jump by dint of no other serious national competition and chosen to run the anonymous second leg for the relay.

Not so long ago, the thought of Jones running any leg other than the anchor would have been inconceivable. But not so long ago, Jones existed in a different universe and as she walked through the hot camera lights towards 100 questions in the tunnel underneath the stadium, the famous poise began to crumble.

"Mmm - well, it was pretty obvious that we didn't get around," she said with a forced smile as Williams and LaTasha Colander supported her.

"We don't even know what happened. It felt like a pretty good run but I just couldn't get the baton to Lauren. It didn't happen today."

Asked to sum up her entire Olympic experience, Jones said: "Well, it was a rough one." Then came tears.

"She's a warrior and I want ya all to know that," Colander said, stepping quickly in.

"You know, we are together from the beginning to the end and the USA is going to stick with her to the end. In the Olympics it is not always the win that is the struggle but the journey to get there. And this journey has been very tough for her. And the USA team is with her. We hope that you all will be with her. We will be back."

But Jones cannot say that with certainty. With further recriminations likely through the Balco affair, she returns from Athens with neither of the medals that might have provided some sort of absolution from a year when she was reduced to outcast.

To be involved in something as dramatic as a messed up baton hand-over will only further highlight how completely her old status has been diminished.

The initial theory was that Williams, the rookie on the team, had started her run too early.

Jones appeared to shout "no" at her team-mate as she started to sprint and made three unsuccessful attempts to stretch forward and place the baton in Williams's hand. But by then Williams had passed the 20-metre exchange zone.

"I just made a mistake, that is all," said Williams.

"We will be back. It was a bad year for us and I hope you guys are about to see what happens next year. We came here as a team and we are going out as a team."

Struggling to stay composed, Jones walked the long line of cameras and recorders and faced a barrage of questions, breaking down several times when the questions turned to the tribulations of the past six months.

"It takes a certain kind of person to know how to win and a different kind of person to know how to lose and that's what I gotta learn here today.

"I am going to take it in stride."