Olympic champion Jones cannot defend her title

MARION JONES may still win her ticket to Athens but the great leveller that is the US Olympic trials has seen to it that she will be a mere bit-part player when the Games get under way next month.

As the most powerful track and field nation on the planet takes a two-day break in the selection of its team for the XXVIII Olympiad, there is much for the Jones household to consider from the opening four days of these trials on the campus of California State University in Sacramento.

Not only did Jones fail to qualify for the women’s 100m team on Saturday, but her partner Tim Montgomery was eliminated from the men’s 100m team the following day.