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Thursday, September 07 2006 @ 09:24 AM CDT
Marion Jones is free to return to the track again, her record and reputation cleared after a backup drug test came up clean.
The "B" sample taken from one of the world's best-known and most decorated sprinters did not detect the banned endurance enhancer EPO, her attorneys said Wednesday night - a stunning result that resurrects her career almost as quickly as it was nearly dashed earlier this summer.
The finding means her initial positive result is thrown out, clearing her of the most recent - and most damaging - allegations and paving the way for her return to the sport she defined in the late '90s and early this decade.
"I am absolutely ecstatic," Jones said in a statement released by her lawyers. "I have always maintained that I have never ever taken performance enhancing drugs, and I am pleased that a scientific process has now demonstrated that fact."
Long a target of governing bodies in track and the Olympic movement, Jones tested positive for EPO on June 23, after winning the 100 meters at U.S. nationals for her first sprint title since 2002.
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