LOS ANGELES: Triple Olympic champion Marion Jones has been cleared of potential doping charges for use of EPO after the B sample analysis of her test was negative, her attorney said on Wednesday.
"I am absolutely ecstatic," Jones said in a statement released by her attorneys after she had been informed of the negative backup sample analysis on Wednesday.
"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. I am anxious to get back on the track."
Jones' A urine sample from the US Track and Field Championships on June 23 in Indianapolis, where she won the 100 meters, had been reported positive for the banned endurance-booster EPO.
Jones said when she learned of that result in August that she was "shocked."
US media first reported the apparent positive test, with several newspapers, including the Washington Post and New York Times, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the result.
USA Track and Field declined to comment at the time, and the US Anti-Doping Agency never confirmed the reports in line with its policy of not commenting on cases in progress.
USADA officials were not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
Jones abruptly withdrew from a meeting in Zurich and returned to the United States as the news surfaced in August, and later issued her statement calling for the testing of the B sample to be expedited.
"The scientific part of the testing protocols worked, but it is unfortunate that because of the leak of the A sample results Marion was wrongfully accused of a doping violation, and her reputation was unfairly questioned," said Howard Jacobs, one of Jones' attorneys.
That kind of question is nothing new for the 30-year-old sprint star, whose five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics included three gold.
Jones has never faced a formal doping charge, but even so she was effectively declared persona non grata in Europe last season after being linked to the BALCO steroid distribution scandal that erupted prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Her former partner Tim Montgomery, who is the father of Jones's young son, was banished and his world 100m record run erased based on evidence collected in the BALCO criminal investigation.
But Jones has soldiered on, and mounted a comeback this season that she has said she hopes will see her contend at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
At the Golden League meeting in Paris on July 8, Jones broke the 11-second barrier for the first time since 2002 to win the women's 100m in 10.92sec.
