The US Olympic trials creaked back to life in Sacramento yesterday with the opening sessions of the decathlon competition, the main theme was anticipation. The best of these trials has yet to come.

As an aperitif to the Olympics the business at Hornet Stadium has been just fine. NBC television will have been rubbing their hands. The sudsy little biographies which are the trademark of their Olympic coverage have been arriving ready made.

Flower child Gabe Jennings embraced the cadences of the winds and won the 1,500 metres. And legally blind runner Marla Runyan took third place behind Regina Jacobs and Suzy Favor-Hamilton in the womens' event. Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson have been trash talking all week. Then there's Charles and Di . . .

At a leisurely press conference on Wednesday Marion Jones flashed her gummy smile while CJ Hunter, her 330-pound thrower of a husband, sat beside her like a gruff security guard.

It was the first time the pair have given a joint press conference and in deference they were given the royal couple treatment.

No questions about drugs in throwing or sprinting, lots of lines borrowed from the old Mr & Mrs quiz show. (CJ always forgets to put the bins out!)

Hunter announced, to nobody's great surprise, that if he had his way (and looking at him it's hard to know what's stopping him) he wouldn't permit any publicity. "No press conferences, no questions, there would be no film crews. We'd practise, we'd go to meets and we'd go home."

Marion Jones, who seems at least to have figured out that media interest means pay days, has inveigled Hunter into doing a TV spot for NBC television promoting the network's Olympic coverage. In the segment Hunter starts tossing grapefruits around a supermarket while Jones sprints around catching them. Cary Grant and Doris Day they ain't, but in a nation that wouldn't know a javelin from a vaulting pole, they are the best America has got.

Jones' comments all week have reflected the sense of pending breach in a hitherto happy relationship with the media. She is defensive and a little spikey about criticisms of her media availability, her jerky long jump style and her coach. The impression is that the liveliest press conference of the Olympics will come if the "drive for five" gold medals falls apart.

"I tell people that perhaps if I had to do it all over again, I would have waited a little longer to tell everybody that I wanted to go for five," said Jones, who has been talking about winning five gold medals for some two years now.

Jones is back in action on Sunday in the 200 metres heats and final, a formality which should seal her participation in five events in Sydney (100 and 200 metres sprints, long jump, 4x100 metres relay and 4X400 metres relay).

Tonight's programme contains the first of many finals this weekend. The 800 metres for men is unlikely to feature any prospective Sydney medallists, but should bring drama with any three from six or seven runners capable of making the Games. That race will be followed by the 5,000 metres finals for men and women, with Sonia O'Sullivan sure to be watching the latter race with interest.