CARSON (California): Former triple Olympic champion Marion Jones plans to be running again by August, her agent said on Saturday.
“She will be back, running somewhere in Europe, by August,” Charles Wells told Reuters. Jones walked off the track before the start of her 100m preliminaries at the US Championships on Friday after experiencing problems with a hip flexor she had injured last week.
“It is not serious, but if she had run it would have been,” Wells said in a telephone interview. The championships are the US trials for August's world championships in Helsinki, and Jones had said she was “a long shot” to make the American team after running poorly all season.
Few, however, expected her dramatic departure to come without running a competitive step, especially after seeing her warm-up and her stride for at least 40m.
Her coach insisted, though, the walk-off did not signal the end of Jones's career.
“People who are writing her off are going to be in for a major surprise,” Steve Riddick said. “She is going to be fine.”
“She can run, but she can not drive out of the blocks,” he added. “That's the problem, she can't start.”
“The injury is very slight – she tweaked her left quads in practice five or six days ago – but we have to be cautious.”
Wells said Jones's retirement plans had not changed.
“Marion Jones is not retiring until after the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” he said. “She will be fine in two weeks.”
He said no track meetings had been lined up in Europe, “but she will be running somewhere”, most likely after the world championships. Riddick was more cautious about her return. She “probably” will compete later this summer, he said. – Reuters