Athletics: Jones Returns in New Role As Also-ran

Marion Jones was last night allowed to compete in a stadium named after the greatest female athlete in history.

The capacity crowd of 5,000 shoehorned into the Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadion for the Thales FBK-Games groaned in disappointment as Jones, once a phenomenon, crossed the line second in the 100 metres, just holding off Joice Maduaka.

The winner in 11.15sec was Chandra Sturrup, of the Bahamas, a former training partner of Jones, who finished in 11.29 with Maduaka third in 11.46.

Maduaka, 31, has been Britain's top female sprinter for nearly a decade and is clearly a hard-working athlete but has never before come close to challenging Jones, a woman who in her pomp aspired to succeed Blankers- Koen, winner of a record four Olympic gold medals in London in 1948.

Recently her performances have fallen faster than a stone off a cliff. Between 1997 and 2002 she won 59 of the 60 100m finals she contested. Then the FBI investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative started and she suddenly became beatable.

Jones has been claiming for nearly 18 months that her sudden loss of form is due to the birth of her son in June 2003 and she is still recovering her strength. But history has shown that plenty of women have come back stronger, not weaker, from childbirth in a much shorter space of time than Jones.

"It's just a touch strange what is happening," said Maduaka. "But it will come out in the wash."

Jones's linen is being examined by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and they suspect it may not be whiter than white. For more than 18 months they have been searching for evidence she may have used banned performance-enhancing drugs. They have obviously found nothing conclusive because she has not been charged with anything. Some legal experts believe Usada is waiting for the Balco trial, which is due to start in San Francisco in September, so that they can gather the formal evidence necessary to charge her.

"They should either retract the statement or do something," said Steve Riddick, her latest coach, after the race yesterday.

Riddick is a grey-haired, portly man with a friendly demeanour. But he is the latest in a long line of men Jones has been involved with who cast doubt over her oft-stated commitment to drug-free sport.

Riddick has admitted that during his own career as a world-class sprinter - he was a member of the US team that won the Olympic gold medal in the 4x100m relay in 1976 - he was involved in attempts to beat the drug testers.

In the 70s he claimed a leading British official warned him not to finish in a certain position in races in London if he did not want to be tested and, if he did, the official would provide a clean sample to ensure he did not test positive.

But his misbehaviour is fairly minor compared with some of the other men in her life. Tim Montgomery, the world 100m record holder and father of her child, faces life suspension when he appears before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in California next Monday.

He has testified under oath to a grand jury that he used a cocktail of banned performance-enhancing drugs, including the undetectable human growth hormone.

If Montgomery is banned, he will be the second elite athlete Jones has been involved with who has suffered that fate. In 2000 CJ Hunter, her husband at the time, was suspended for two years after testing positive for record amounts of anabolic steroids. She subsequently divorced him.

Along the way she also cut her ties with her coach Trevor Graham, who was hailed as a hero when he exposed the existence of tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), the designer anabolic steroid that led to Britain's Dwain Chambers being banned for two years. But Graham has been connected with a number of leading athletes who have tested positive.

After leaving Graham, Jones linked up with Charlie Francis, a man banned for life in Canada after being exposed by a federal inquiry as the mastermind behind the drugs programme that propelled Ben Johnson to sporting infamy.

It was only the pressure of Nike, her shoe sponsors, that finally persuaded Jones to end the association. But even Nike - a company that has not feared being associated with sporting mavericks - is running out of patience with the constant bad publicity. Her $3m contract runs out at the end of the year and will not be renewed.

They are not the only ones fed up with the baggage Jones brings with her. The 47 members of the group that make up Euro Meetings, an organisation of directors of Europe's elite events, have banned Jones.

But Hengelo, one of its smaller members, broke ranks for publicity purposes and invited her to this event. The $15,000 (£8,200) it paid is a fifth of the sum she used to command but, with legal bills mounting up, she needs the money.

There was little yesterday to suggest the sleepy Dutch town was at the centre of an international storm. Even its most famous attraction, a museum dedicated to salt, was closed. That, though, did not stop Jos Hermens, the elite athletes co-ordinator, trying to rub salt into Jones's wounds. "What Marion has been doing is very suspicious but there is no positive test," said Hermens.

He blamed the ban on Ian Stewart, the director of Britain's televised events. "There have been lots of suspicious performances from her but most of the pressure has come from Ian and the English press," said Hermens.

"I had reservations about her but I looked into every thing and at the moment there is no case."

Hermens, the most respected agent in Europe, whose biggest client is Haile Gebrselassie, is no apologist for drugs. He refused an invitation to Montgomery, who also wanted to run here. "There is evidence against him and we wouldn't want him here," he said.

And of Jones? She is a lot slimmer than she used to be and appears to be a woman in denial. "It doesn't have anything to do with me and everything to do with me," she said.

"It's obvious people want to see me. I can fill up stadiums. I can only control what I can do. I can't control what other people do."

Jones is due to run again on Wednesday in Milan, another meeting that has broken the embargo. Enjoy her while you can. On this evidence, she will not be around much longer. If the drugs do not get her, then her poor performances surely will.