Susanthika's Olympic medal to be upgraded?

Disgraced Marion Jones hands over her medals:

Dinesh Weerawansa

Sri Lanka sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe could soon expect an upgrading of her women's 200m bronze medal won at the Sydney 200m Olympic Games after the gold medallist of the event Marion Jones handed over her medals.

Jones, who won five medals at the Sydney 2000 summer Olympiad - three gold medals that included the women's 200m 'crown', returned all her five medals to the US sports officials yesterday, after admitting to have taken performance enhancing drugs.

The US media reported that disgraced American woman sprinter has returned medals she won in Sydney seven years ago. Jones, who turns 32 on Friday, admitted last week that she used performance-enhancing drugs, pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators.

Days after the US Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth asked Jones should hand her medals back, the woman sprinter has obliged. "She has returned the medals," Jones' lawyer Henry DePippo was quoted as saying to the 'People' magazine. However, DePippo said Jones is not going to comment on the matter while it's pending in court though the medals were returned yesterday.

The 'Los Angeles Express' completed a sprint double by winning women's 100m and 200m titles in addition to taking the third gold in 4x400m relay. She also bagged bronze medals in long jump and 4x100m relay.

She has already accepted a two-year ban after admitting to the use of a prohibited steroid, according to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said on Monday. It was after years of denial, that Jones finally admitted to a US court on Friday that she had taken a performance enhancing drug.

When Jones won the women's 200m gold in Sydney, Pauline Davis (Bahamas) came second while Jayasinghe settled for the bronze. But Jayasinghe was only one hundredth of a second behind Davis in clocking 22.28 seconds. Since Jones has now handed over her medals, the IOC would follow the normal procedure of upgrading the medallists.

Accordingly, Bahamian Davis would take the Sydney Olympics' gold in women's 200m while her silver would now come to Jayasinghe, who will have to return her bronze to be awarded to the fourth placed athlete.

President of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka, Hemasiri Fernando, when contacted yesterday, said they are waiting a response from the IOC. "We are monitoring the developments but there has not been any message so far," he said.

President of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka, Maj. General Palitha Fernando said the IOC, in consultation with the IAAF, would contact the respective countries.

He said Jayasinghe could well get the silver as Jones has now handed over her medals back. Jones admitted that she took the banned substance known as the "clear" from September 2000 through to July 2001, violating the IAAF and USADA rules. She pleaded guilty to two counts - providing false statements to federal investigators and will be sentenced in January next year.

According to the US track and field body, Jones's two-year ban began on Monday, the day she officially accepted the suspension. She is also disqualified from all competitive results obtained on and subsequent to September 1, 2000, and must forfeit all medals, results, points and prizes from that date, according to the world anti-doping agency - WADA.

But Jones announced her retirement on Friday and apologized to her fellow competitors and hoped the record books will be amended to accurately reflect their achievements.

Marion Jones was the star attraction at the Sydney Olympic Games and won hearts of millions of sports fans around the globe.

Charming Jones has been a humble athlete and posed for an exclusive photograph with Jayasinghe, immediately after the women's 200m final in the mixed zone.

When the writer, apparently with a closed shutter cap, tried to have a photo session, she walked up to me and pointed the mistake.

When Jones was originally interviewed by federal officials in California, she denied having taken performance-enhancing drugs. Officials said she made other false statements during their investigation into the activities of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), and to New York federal agents investigating a check fraud or money laundering scheme.

Since 2004, the Olympic officials have had an open file on the BALCO case. The IOC set up a Disciplinary Commission with a view to investigating how the case might have affected Olympians. Progress to date has been slow due to difficulties in gathering findings.