Electronic Telegraph
Wednesday 20 September 2000
Tom Knight
MARION JONES'S attempt to win five gold medals was helped here last night
when misfortune struck two of her rivals for the 100 metres.
Inger Miller, who finished second to Jones in the US trials, withdrew with a
hamstring injury, and Christine Arron, the European champion, was revealed
to be in danger of missing the event because of illness.
Miller hopes to be fit in time to compete in the 200m, her stronger event,
which starts at the end of next week. It was in the 200m at last year's
World Championships that Miller won gold, after Jones collapsed with a back
injury in the semi-finals.
Miller said: "I'm sad but I have to understand that this isn't the end of
the world. The timing is really tough but I refuse to say 'why me?' because
I didn't say 'why me?' when I had a great season last year."
Miller, who will announce her withdrawal today, will be replaced in the 100m
by Torri Edwards.
Arron, who won gold at the 1998 European Championships in a European record
time of 10.73sec, is suffering from a throat infection, the French team's
doctor said yesterday. "To recover from that type of illness, you need from
four to seven days, which means there is a risk she might not be well in
time for the heats on Friday," Didier Polin said.
Meanwhile, Eunice Barber's injury problems appear to have been exaggerated.
The French heptathlete who beat Britain's Denise Lewis to the world title in
Seville last summer, is said to be free from pain and back to her best after
recovering from a long-standing hamstring problem. The heptathlon starts on
Saturday.
Melbourne will host the 2001 Grand Prix athletics finals, the International
Amateur Athletic Federation said yesterday.
Eamonn Condon
WWW.RunnersGoal.com
