March 7, 2002

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) American Olympian Alvin Harrison won the 200 and 400-meters Thursday while Cathy Freeman found her international comeback tougher than expected at the Melbourne Classic IAAF athletics meet.

"I'm still very rusty in my joints - I call it tin-man syndrome, I need oil in my joints," Freeman said after finishing fourth in the 200-meters in 23.64 seconds behind fellow Olympians Lauren Hewitt (23.20), Jodi Lambert (23.53) and Sharon Cripps (23.61), all of Australia.

Harrison, a Sydney Olympics 400-meter silver medalist, won the 200 in 20.63, ahead of Australia Patrick Johnson (21.30), and then took the 400 over Australian Michael Rehardt in a time of 45.77.

Battling hamstring soreness and some back pain, Freeman was upstaged for the second time in five days by fellow Australian Hewitt, who beat the Olympic 400-meter champion in a domestic meet last weekend and is undefeated this season.

"There's still a lot of work yet to do as you can see," Freeman said four months into her comeback that started last November. "I'm realistic because my times probably prepared me for not getting a placing tonight. But I think I can run faster than I ever have yet."

Freeman will run again on Saturday in Hobart in the next meet of the Australian series.