ago.16.2009

The re-allocation of Marion Jones's (pictured) five medals from the 2000 Olympics, including the one in the 100 metres, will be speeded up, Jacques Rogge told insidethegames today.

The United States superstar was stripped of the 100m, 200m and 4x400m relay gold medals and her long jump and 4x100m bronzes she won at Sydney after she admitted to doping but so far none of the other athletes in those events have been upgraded.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) President said that he now wants a swift conclusion to the controversy which has been dragging on since Jones admitted in October 2007 that she was using performance-enhancing drugs at the time of the Games in Sydney and was stripped of her medal.

Rogge told insidethegames: "We have decided this morning to speed up that process as soon as possible.

"The IOC has not come up today with a final response for a number of reasons."

An appeal by several of Jones' relay team mates, who were stripped of their medals because of her doping, is still pending at the Court of Arbitration for Sport while the US investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (Balco) linked with the sprinter was also ongoing, Rogge said.

Jones served six months in prison last year for lying to Federal investigators probing the Balco case and is now no longer involved in the sport.

Rogge said the Bahamas Pauline Davis-Thompson, who won the 200m silver in Sydney and now stands to be upgraded to gold, had participated in a meeting today with the IOC and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in Berlin, where the World Championships are due to begin tomorrow.

Lamine Diack, the President of the IAAF, told insidethegames: "We think by October we will have some news on this."

The other dilemma facing the IOC is whether to award Greece's Ekaterina Thanou the 100m gold from Sydney after she was banned for anti-doping rule violations at the 2004 Athens Games and was barred from competing in last year's Beijing Olympics for bringing the movement into disrepute.

As revealed last week by insidethegames, Thanou has claimed that she was offered a deal by the IOC whereby she would be awarded the Sydney gold medal if she admitted her guilt at the 2004 Games following a series of missed out-of-competition tests.

She refused and is now threatening to sue Rogge and the IOC.

Source: www.insidethegames.com