Jones
RALEIGH, (Reuters) -
MARION Jones's drive for five Olympic gold medals can now shift into high gear.
The American sprint star has been named to both US relay squads for the Sydney Games, officially making her dream of becoming the first female athletics competitor to capture five golds at a single Games a possibility.
Jones will be part of 10-member US pools for both the 4x100- and 4x400-metre relays, US women's coach Karen Dennis said in an interview from her office at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Jones plans to compete in both relays as well as in the 100 and 200 metres and long jump in Sydney. She earned team spots in the individual events at the US Olympic trials.
Although Jones did not run the 400 metres at the trials, "the other women know Marion has earned the right to run (the 4x400 relay)," Dennis said.
In addition to Jones, the US 4x100-metre relay pool includes the next seven finishers in the women's 100 metres at the trials: Inger Miller, Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Gail Devers, Nanceen Perry, Carlette Guidry and Passion Richardson. Semi-finalists Shakedia Jones and Angela Williams also were named to the pool.
The 4x400-metre relay pool includes Jones and the top eight finishers in the women's 400 metres at the trials: LaTasha Colander-Richardson, Jearl Miles-Clark, Michelle Collins, Monique Hennagan, Mikele Barber, Andrea Anderson, Maicel Malone-Wallace and Monique Henderson. Semi-finalist Youlanda Warren also was selected.
Henderson is a 17-year-old California high school student.
"I'm just covering all of the bases in the event we need people to run rounds or in the event we lose some folks," Dennis said of the large number of selections.
All of the 4x100-metre relay choices will travel to Europe for practice. "They will all probably run in a relay," Dennis said. "It may not be in the same meet; it may not be the same people, but everybody will get an opportunity to run."
The Americans will have training camps in Monaco and Berlin and will compete in meetings at Monaco, Brussels and Berlin.
The 4x400-metre selections will do their training at the Americans' pre-Olympic camp in Brisbane, Australia.
The US men's relay pools were named earlier this week with world record holders Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene among the selections. Johnson was picked to anchor the 4x400 relay and Greene for similar duties in the 4x100-metre relay.
