Jones hears the sweetest news in her career

'Superwoman' Marion Jones heard one, if not the sweetest news in her career when she was all cleared by the world track and field governing body, only a week away from the IAAF World Cup in Athens.

The former triple Olympic champion was cleared of doping last Wednesday after her 'B' urine sample tested negative for the banned blood-boosting drug EPO. It was last June that her initial 'A' sample tested positive for Erythropoietin at the US championships in Indianapolis.

The 30-year-old celebrated American woman sprinter would have faced a two-year ban had her second sample tested positive. But to the joy of that ever-smiling sprint queen and to millions of her fans around the world, Jones was cleared.

Jones had this to say on hearing that good news; "I am absolutely ecstatic, I have always maintained that I have never ever taken performance enhancing drugs, and I am pleased that a scientific process has now demonstrated that fact. I am anxious to get back on the track".

Unlike most other foreign athletes, Marion Jones became a household name in Sri Lanka after the 2000 Sydney Olympics where our own Susanthika Jayasinghe brought home an Olympic medal after 52 years. It was Jones who bagged the women's 200m gold when Jayasinghe won the bronze behind Jamaican Pauline Davis-Thompson on September 28, 2000.

I had the fortune of witnessing Jayasinghe's dream run at Sydney Olympic Stadium with fellow local media men Asoka Goonetilleke, Bandula Molligoda and Kelum Srimal. When our sprint queen Jayasinghe was talking to us after that historic feat, Jones was returning to the dressing room after her victory lap with the US flag.

When an overjoyed Jayasinghe wanted to pose for a picture with Jones, the American lass was more than willing. In fact, Jones put her arm around Jayasinghe to pose for the picture at the 'mixed zone', just outside the track. It was then that Jones noticed that the lens cap of my camera was closed. Perhaps, we too were excited and overjoyed after witnessing that 'dream final'.

But to my surprise, Jones walked up to me with her charming smile, held my hand, and said: "you have not opened the lens cover". What a humble athlete she was! In contrast, I have seen swollen-headed champion athletes like Michael Johanson. Of course the sprint merchant is a legend, but he lacked that great habit of being humble in victory. On his way to a sprint double, he was beaten by our own Sugath Tillakaratne in a first round heat at 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Tillakaratne could not hide his joy of beating an Olympic champion, at least in a heat. Perhaps, that was why young Tillakaratne wanted to pose for a photograph with Johnson. But when Tillakaratne made a humble request, not only Johnson showed his poor sportsmanship by flatly rejecting it, but also abused our sprinter with a four-letter word.

But, his US team mate Jones was a model athlete. Apart from her superior skills to run like a bullet, she had that fascinating smile that attracted millions of fans around the globe. I have seen her running and spoken to her on many occasions in Sydney, Edmonton, Paris and Athens. But I have never seen any guilty look on her face.

She was simply a queen at the Sydney Games, winning five Olympic medals, including golds in the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay. But ever since, she had to undergo tremendous problems in her life, both on and off the track. She divorced her husband C.J. Hunter, who did not look a good match at all to a sweet lass like Jones.

Jones then gave a birth to a baby boy, following an affair with her boyfriend and former world 100m record holder, Tim Montgomery. As a result, she was out of action for an year and even missed the 2003 IAAF World Championships in Paris - St. Dennis.

Then when the things were going right for her after the comeback, the unjustifiable dope drama came to the limelight. The scientific part of the testing protocols worked, but it was unfortunate that because of the 'leak' of the 'A' sample results, Jones was wrongfully accused of a doping violation and her reputation was unfairly questioned.

Though Jones has repeatedly denied taking performance-enhancing drugs, only a few were willing to listen. Until the June debacle, Jones had never failed a doping test before.

She has been under scrutiny by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in connection with the infamous BALCO laboratory doping scandal, but has never been charged with a doping offence Jones rewrote world track history and governed world sprinting in the late 1990s and early this decade while coached by Trevor Graham, who is currently facing an IAAF investigation. Even her boyfriend Montgomery went from grace to disgrace and Jones had performed badly since having a son from him.

But Jones has three of the five fastest times in the world this year with a best of 10.91 seconds in Italy to rank second overall behind Jamaica's Sherone Simpson. Now that she has been cleared, all her fans are anxiously awaiting for this weekend's World Cup finals in Athens, from where she returned empty handed after the 2004 Olympics. Though her name has been included in the American team for the women's 100m, Jones has not confirmed her availability at the time of writing.