SACRAMENTO – The first couple of track and field – dubbed beauty and the beast by their many detractors – held what they termed their first joint news conference

yesterday and offered a glimpse into their united world.

Marion Jones pretty much served as the spokesperson for the partnership of blaze and brawn as C.J. Hunter played to his incredible hulk public persona of strong and silent. Those who attended this 45-minute, coming-out-together gathering pretty much could have seen what they wanted from an association that has spawned debate if it is insular and insulting or nurturing and loving.

You could see Hunter, from beneath a tightly pulled-down baseball cap, gaze admiringly up at his more famous wife or you could see Jones looking constantly toward a man seven years her senior and on his second marriage to seek his approval of her responses.

You could respect their call for privacy – especially by Hunter – or you could recognize they were holding this news conference at the offices of their sneaker company, which is packaging them to be household names and big-time rich this summer. You could take their feisty answers about loyalty to each other, coaches and athletic technique to be admirable or abominable.

In the catty, chatty world of track and field, the marriage of Jones and Hunter is a front-and-center discussion point because it merges two brilliant athletes, with the woman being more recognized and renowned than the husband. And because it is filled with soap-opera elements about the propriety of its start, intra-family squabbles and broken homes.

“I tell people that C.J. is very protective and you see that,” Jones said. “But he also is very loving and caring. When we leave the public eye, he is a big teddy bear. He doesn’t want me to say that because it breaks down his wall.”

Jones, in case you don’t already know it, is being groomed to be a September star. No American track and field athlete has ever won five gold medals at an Olympics and Jones plans to be the first. That she has repeated over and over that she will win the five in the off-hand way you might order an omelet at a restaurant has created both supporters who like her moxie and critics who dislike her … moxie.

Yesterday, she said her only regret about her brash designs was revealing them two years ago, fostering 24 months of having to talk about it. This will only grow more burdensome in the next two months. At these U.S. Track and Field Trials, Jones already has won the 100 meters and long jump. The 200 is to be contested this weekend and she is the favorite. She also expects to run the 400 and 1,600 relays.

Hunter finished second at the Trials in the shot-put, but will still go to the Games as a gold favorite. He also will go to the 27th Summer Olympics as Mr. Marion Jones, part of a relationship that will be storyline – with Hunter’s blessing or not – in Sydney.

The quick recap is that Hunter was a throw-coach for the track and field team at the same time Jones was a standout for the University of North Carolina basketball (she was the starting point guard in 1994 when the Heels won the national title) and to a lesser degree the track squad. A relationship began between a couple that had fathers abandon them in youth and the university informed Hunter it was against policy for a coach to date an athlete. He resigned in 1996. Hunter was blamed for Jones giving up her last year of basketball eligibility. Hoops obviously is king in Chapel Hill. Hunter and Jones now train at N.C. State.

There also was talk Jones’ mother did not favor the relationship since Hunter is seven years older and already had been involved in a messy divorce and had two children. But Jones’ relationship with her mother was also at issue because Jones reportedly did not like that her mother had followed her from the West Coast to Chapel Hill.

And there was just the disparity in appearance and demeanor. Jones is a chiseled, pretty woman, who is bubbly in personality. Hunter weighs more than twice his 150-pound wife and exudes the charm of a bouncer at an exclusive club.

“If I had it my way, there would be no press conferences, no camera crews,” Hunter said. “We’d go to practice, go to meets and go home.”

But this summer they will be going to Sydney for his second Olympics and her first. In 1992, Jones could have gone as a 16-year-old alternate for the 1,600-meter relay. But she said that when she won a gold medal, she wanted it to be by her sweat and not that of others. She broke her foot twice playing basketball in 1995, knocking her out of the 1996 Games.

Since then she has emerged as the world’s top female athlete. She has married. And she has made the bold assertion that she will be golden five times.

“From the very beginning, C.J. has been very supportive in my quest for five,” Jones said. “He is the first to tell anyone, that I’m going to do it.”