Marion jumps to Olympics

13 April 2012

Marion Jones has finally booked her ticket to next month's Olympic Games.

She removed any lingering doubts about making it to Athens by recording the second best long jump of the year last night at the United States Olympic trials in Sacramento, California.

But America athletics was dealt another blow in the ongoing drugs controversy when middle distance star Regina Jacobs announced her retirement only four days before a hearing into her failed test.

Jacobs tested positive for the previously undetectable designer steroid THG in June 2003 and is to appear in front of the US Anti-Doping Agency on Sunday, the same day she was due to compete in the 1500metres final at the trials.

Despite not being charged, Jones's performances have suffered in the wake of the BALCO scandal and accusations that she has taken prohibited substances.

The double Olympic sprint champion of 2000 needed to qualify in the long jump after her failure to make the US team in the 100m and her poor form this year in the 200m, for which the heats start today.

A less than convincing performance in Monday's long jump rounds, where she qualified seventh out of 12 and failed to reach the automatic qualifying mark of 6.40m, intensified the pressure on Jones despite the fact she and Grace Upshaw were the only two competitors to have reached the Olympic A standard.

Jones removed any doubt she might be beaten with her first jump of last night's final, producing a leap of 6.80m. She then pulled out a 7.11m effort with her second attempt to gain an unassailable lead.

It was a stadium record at the California State University,the second longest jump in the world this year behind Jamaica's Elva Goulbourne's 7.16m, and the longest Jones had jumped since hitting the 7.31m mark in 1998.

Jones did not speak directly to reporters, with whom she has had a frosty relationship lately, but in a stadium interview from the podium she told the crowd: "I think I had a little bit of motivation. It feels really good. I had fun out there."

Upshaw was second with 6.83m while Akiba McKinney was third and has until 9 August to achieve the A mark and confirm her place for Athens.

Michael Johnson's legacy in the 400m continued, four years after he retired with a successful defence of his gold medal in Sydney.

Jeremy Wariner, of Johnson's alumni Baylor University and coached by his mentor Clyde Hart, booked his spot on the team by winning the 400m final.

Meanwhile, the drugs issue rumbles on, with the management-team of 100m world champion-Torri Edwards responding to her being charged with a doping violation which carries a twoyear suspension.

Edwards, 27, was found to have a trace amount of the prohibited stimulant nikethamide in a urine sample given in competition in Martinique on 24 April.

A statement released by HS International said Edwards had inadvertently taken the illegal substance when she took an overthecounter glucose tablet bought on the French Virgin Island by her physical therapist Dr Christopher Vincent.

"Torri is not a drug cheat," the statement read. "She never knowingly and intentionally misused any product or drug to gain an unfair advantage over her competitors.

"Regardless of how her case is ultimately decided, Torri knows she has not committed an intentional doping offence."

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Marion jumps to Olympics

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