American sprinter Marion Jones returns to her native California for a 400 metres race against Australian Jana Pittman on Sunday hoping to re-ignite her faltering career.
Jones, who failed to win a medal at last year's Athens Olympics after claiming five in the 2000 Sydney Games, will meet world 400 metres hurdles champion Pittman in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays near Los Angeles.
It will be her first race since the Athens Games.
European meeting organisers and sports officials will closely monitor Jones's form after a troubled year of doping accusations and her failure to make the US Olympic team in either the 100 or 200 metres.
She competed in the long jump and 4x100 metres relay only in Athens and received a medal in neither.
Jones's new coach Steve Riddick said he expected the 29-year-old sprinter would run very well on Sunday.
"I guess 'very well' could be anywhere under 50 seconds," Steve Riddick said in a telephone interview from his office in Norfolk, Virginia, where Jones and her partner, 100 metres world record holder Tim Montgomery, train on week days.
TOUGH
"Marion is fit," said Riddick, a former sprinter, who began working with Jones last October. "She is ready to go. She is going to run, and run tough.
Riddick also trains Bahamian Olympic 400 metres champion Tonique Williams-Darling, although she and Jones do not work together.
"Once she gets one [race] under her belt, it is going to be tough for the rest of the world," Riddick added. "I think she is back where she wants to be."
Riddick said giving birth to a child in 2003 had affected Jones's performances last year.
"I figured it would take a couple of years for her to come back," he said. "When you give life you lose a little bit."
Riddick said Jones's goals this year were to make the US team for August's Helsinki world championships in both the 100 and 200 metres and the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.
Her manager Charles Wells said Jones has no plans to compete in the long jump this year.
Jones will run a 4x200 relay at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence, Kansas, on April 23 then may run her first 100 metres of the season in Fort de France, Martinique on April 30 although no contract has been signed.
Montgomery may also run a 100 metres in Martinique.
"Tim is in very good shape," Riddick said. "They [Jones and Montgomery] are going to be tough."
CAS HEARING
The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) accused Montgomery of serious doping violations last year and he awaits a hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in June.
Jones was also under scrutiny last year by USADA although she has not been charged with a doping violation, has denied using performance-enhancing drugs and, like Montgomery, has never failed a doping test.
USADA said on Wednesday it would have no comment when asked whether or not there is or has been an investigation into Jones.
Victor Conte, the founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), the centre of a global doping scandal, accused Jones in December of using performance-enhancing drugs.
Conte, appearing on ABC television, said he devised a drugs programme for Jones and watched her inject herself.
Jones has denied the allegations and has filed a $25 million defamation suit against Conte.
Riddick said his group "has no need" to talk about doping problems.
"Time will take care of itself," he said. "We try to stay off the computer and other newspapers and try to focus on what is at hand."
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