Jones runs year’s second fastest 100m on return

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Former Olympic sprint queen Marion
Jones ran the year’s second fastest 100 metres on her seasonal
debut, clocking 11.06 seconds to defeat ex-world champion Torri
Edwards at Veracruz, Mexico on Saturday.

The race was the 30-year-old American’s first appearance in
11 months and produced her fastest time since 2004.

Despite registering a morale-boosting victory, the triple
gold-medal winner at the 2000 Sydney Olympics crossed the line
more than four-tenths of a second off her personal best of
10.65 seconds set in 1998.

Edwards finished a distant second in 11.30 seconds although
the sprinters did run into a headwind.

America’s world 200 metres champion Allyson Felix has the
year’s quickest time of 11.04 seconds.

Jones, who is hoping to re-establish herself as a
world-class sprinter, has suffered a slump in form since giving
birth to her first child with then-partner Tim Montgomery in
June 2003.

The couple separated last year and Montgomery was banned
from the sport for two years and stripped of his 100 metres
world record in December by the Court of Arbitration for Sport
(CAS).

The court made its ruling on the basis of evidence accepted
from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that he had taken
banned substances provided by California laboratory BALCO.

Montgomery, who never failed a doping test while he was
competing, has denied taking performance-enhancing drugs. He
announced his retirement in December but has continued to fight
the ban.

Jones also has been under scrutiny by USADA but has never
been charged. She has never failed a doping test and has denied
taking banned substances.

(Writing by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina)