EDMONTON – Led by gold medalist Maurice Greene, Team USA ran to a World Championships sweep in the men’s 100 meters Sunday for the first time in 10 years.

Greene burst out of the blocks and won in 9.82 seconds, followed by teammates Tim Montgomery (9.85) and Bernard Williams (9.94). Greene got the fastest start of the field with a reaction time of .132 seconds and held off both injury and a rapidly closing Montgomery, who had been charged with a false start in the previous start. Running from lane 6, Williams ran down Ato Boldon of Trinidad to win the bronze.

It was the third straight World Championships 100m gold for Greene, who won despite suffering an injury in his left leg in the final meters of the race. “No one is going to give you the gold medal. You have to come out here and fight for it and be willing to actually die for it. I’m just thankful for finishing the race the way I did and that I was able to pull it out.”

Greene said he “felt something inmy quad, then I took another step, and I felt something in my hamstring.”Greene limped severely after the race and announced he will not run the 200 meters. He is questionable for the relay.

Montgomery improved on the 100m bronze medal he won at the 1997 Worlds and nearly nipped Greene at the tape. “You cannot give a champion like Maurice anything at the start,” Montgomery said. “And with the false start, I gave too much. … I just ran out of room. I came out here to put it all on the line, and Maurice Greene proved to me why he is a champion.”

Greene, Montgomery and Williams replicated the feat of Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell. Lewis also led a U.S. sweep in 1983.

In 1991 in Tokyo, Lewis ran a world record 9.86 to win. Greene’s 9.82, despite being run into a slight headwind, is the third-fastest time ever run, behind only his 9.79 world record and 1999 World Championships time of 9.80.

The U.S. women found surprising success as well. Heptathlete Shelia Burrell won the first medal of the WorldChampionship for the U.S. women, scoring a personal best 6472 points. YelenaProkhorova of Russia won the event with 6694 points and Natalya Sazanovich was second with 6539 points.

The 1999 U.S. champion and 11th at the 1999 Worlds, Burrell won her first international medal with the best performance of her career. She had a tremendous meet, kicking off heptathlon competition on Saturday with big personal bests in the 100m hurdles (13.05) and 200m (22.92). She also had marks of 1.67m/5-5.75 in the high jump and 12.87m/42-2.75 in the shot put. On Sunday, Burrell tied her personal best inthe long jump with a mark of 6.45m/21-2., threw 48.75m/159-11 in the javelin and ran 2:14.24 in the 800m. Teammate DeDee Nathan finished sixth with 6073 points.

“I’m sitting on top of the world,”Burrell said. “The whole meet felt really easy.” For their medal-winning performances, Greene and Burrell were named Xerox Athletes of the Day.

American athletes did well in Sunday’s qualifying rounds as well.

1991 world champion AntonioPettigrew advanced to the 400m final by finishing second in his semifinal in 45.00. Leonard Byrd and Jerome Young were fourth in their respective heats anddid not make the final.

Also making a final cut was long jumper Jenny Adams. The 2001 U.S. champion jumped 6.48m/21 feet, 3.75 inches to sneak in as the 12th qualifier. It should be noted that shot putter Adam Nelson had qualified 12th for Saturday’s final and ended with the silver.

After getting one false start out of the way, Marion Jones wasted no time establishing herself in Edmonton, running 10.93 seconds in the first round of the women’s 100m to set a new Canadian all-comers record. Kelli White (11.36) and Chryste Gaines (11.36) werefirst and second in their respective heats and Angela Williams was third in her heat (11.41) to advance to the second round. In the quarterfinals, Jones again won in a time of 10.97. Kelli White ran impressively to finish second in herheat (11.11), Chryste Gaines was second as well (11.31), and Williams was third in her race (11.24). The semifinals and final will be contested Monday.

In the first round of the women’s 400m hurdles, three-time U.S. champion Sandra Glover won her heat (55.38), 1996 Olympic bronze medalist Tonja Buford-Bailey was second in hers (54.99) and NCAA champion Brenda Taylor was third in her race (56.28) to move to Monday’ssemifinals.

All three Team USA’s women’s 400m runners also automatically qualified for their Tuesday semifinal rounds. Michelle Collins won her heat in 51.26, and Monique Hennagan (51.12) and Demetria Washington (51.50) were second in their heats. Charles Austin, the 1991 World Champion and Team USA captain in Edmonton, moved on toWednesday’s high jump final with a clearance 2.27m/7-5.25. Nathan Leeper (2.25m/7-4.5) and Dave Furman (2.20m/7-2.5) did not qualify for the final. David Krummenacker was seventh in his semifinal of the men’s 800 in 1:47.46 and did not advance. Women’s 1,500m runners both were involved in traffic accidents on the track and did notadvance. Sarah Schwald had to come to a near stop when Germany’s Kathleen Freidrich and Bulgaria’s Daniela Yordanova tangled and fell in front of her on the final turn. Schwald finished seventh in her race in 4:13.95. Lidia Chojeckaof Poland fell in front Suzy Favor Hamilton in a tightly packed field 600m into the second semifinal. Favor Hamilton lost concentration and rhythm and dropped out of the race with 400m to go.

For complete Team USA quotes, visitwww.usatf.org. For results, visit www.iaaf.org.