SYDNEY -- It was billed as the showdown between Australia's indigenous darling, Cathy Freeman, and U.S. star Marion Jones.

In the end, the women's 200-meter sprint wasn't a clash between rival divas of the track -- the most-loved athlete of the Games, the other dragged into the biggest scandal of the Sydney Olympics.

It was a display of girl power by all eight finalists who took to the starting blocks Thursday night.

Every single one of them ran faster than they have all season.

But it was Jones who trounced the field in 21.84 seconds, crossing the finish line 4 meters ahead of her nearest rival to keep alive her dream of being the first track and field athlete to win five gold medals at one Olympics.

Pauline Thompson-Davis of the Bahamas ran a personal best of 22.27 seconds to take the silver medal in her fifth and final Olympics.

And Susanthika Jayasinghe posted a national record of 22.28 seconds to win Sri Lanka its first medal in Olympic track and field since the 1948 London Games.

"These women definitely came out to win gold today and they pushed me. I had to dig down deep," Jones said after adding the gold to the one she collected in the 100-meter sprint Saturday. "What has gone on the last couple of days is not exactly pressure but something that could have easily swayed my focus."

Freeman may have come in seventh in 22.53 seconds, but her presence and the energy that coursed through Stadium Australia as a consequence seemed to have lifted the runners to new heights when it could just as easily have blighted their moment of glory. The race was shaping up as one of the loneliest ever for Jones after her husband, C.J. Hunter, was exposed as having tested positive for nandrolone four times this year -- news that also cast a pall over Jones' own performances.

Running under the shadow of Florence Griffith-Joyner's seemingly super-human world record of 21.34 seconds, would she fail under the pressure? How would she handle the biased Australian crowd after the outpouring of national euphoria that followed Freeman's win in the 400-meter final Monday?

Rather than a display of rivalry, the race seemed to draw Jones and Freeman closer together.

Freeman was the first to congratulate Jones after the race, and Jones then mirrored Freeman's trademark victory act.

While Freeman carries both the Australian and Aboriginal flags, on Thursday Jones ran her lap of honor clutching both the U.S. flag and the flag of her mother's home nation, Belize.

Jayasinghe also did a lap of honor draped in her national flag, while Thompson-Davis wrapped herself in the blue and yellow of the Bahamas.

Flashing her beautiful smile, Jones won over the Sydney crowd, an important factor in her first-ever Olympics.

"The dream is still alive," she said after the race. "I came here with lofty goals and it's only half over. Hopefully, this time tomorrow I'll be talking to you with another gold around my neck."

But the scandal swirling around her husband followed her into the post-race press conference.

Asked if she feared people believed she was a drug cheat, Jones said, "No, I don't have that fear because the people that know me, support me (and) coach me know that I'm a clean athlete, so I don't think like that at all."

Jones aims to win Friday's women's long jump final and then share victory in the women's 4x100-meter relay and 4x400-meter relay.

"A lot of people have doubted me and tomorrow a lot of questions will be answered in regards to my jumping ability," said Jones, who needed only one jump Thursday to qualify for the final.

Freeman never really had a shot at a medal in the 200 meters, having just scraped into the final.

"It was really tough out there. I love racing," she said.