Athletics: Controversy Dogs Jones

Marion Jones was yesterday added to the field for the 100 metres in the London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace next Friday, just as it emerged that the grand jury in the United States has renewed investigations into the man who coached her to five Olympic medals.

According to the New York Times, an associate who worked with Trevor Graham has allegedly told the grand jury and investigators that he supplied performance-enhancing drugs to the coach and many of his athletes, including Jones, her former boyfriend Tim Montgomery, her former husband CJ Hunter and her former training partner Michelle Collins.

Angel Guillermo Heredia, 31, of Mexico and Laredo, Texas, has allegedly provided the grand jury with receipts and other financial records, email messages and the results of blood and urine tests of athletes, including Jones. He testified to the grand jury that he made a drug plan for Jones, provided the drugs to her and worked with her in preparation for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she won a record five medals, including three golds.

Her triumph was overshadowed when Hunter, her husband at the time, was forced to withdraw after he tested positive for record amounts of the anabolic steroid nandrolone. Jones has denied the allegations.

"Marion has been pretty emphatic and clear that she never used performance-enhancing substances," her lawyer Rich Nichols said. "She has passed a lie-detector test when she answered those questions. She has taken more than 160 drug tests over the years and passed all of them. There's nothing else I can say. She's very clear that she's never taken any drugs and is a vocal opponent of drug use."

Graham currently trains Justin Gatlin, the joint world record holder of the 100m, who withdrew from the Norwich Union meeting citing an injury.

Jones divorced Hunter after he was given a two-year drugs suspension. She then began a relationship with Montgomery, which ended after he confessed to the grand jury during an investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco) that he had consumed a cocktail of banned drugs, including human growth hormone and anabolic steroids.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency have been investigating Jones since the Guardian revealed in 2003 that Britain's Dwain Chambers had tested positive for the designer steroid THG, which was distributed by Balco. The Londoner was banned for two years and is now free to run again.