April 10, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1429

BEIJING, April 9: Nearly eight years after the Sydney Olympics, the IOC is prepared to disqualify Marion Jones’ US relay teammates because of her doping history.

Any reallocation of the medals, however, is expected to be postponed again.

What to do with Jones’ five medals from the 2000 Games is among the main agenda items this week for the International Olympic Committee executive board, which opens a two-day meeting in Beijing on Thursday.

Any reshuffling of the medals could affect the medal results of more than three dozen other athletes.

But IOC officials say they are likely to wait for further evidence from the BALCO steroid investigation in the United States before making a final decision on redistributing the medals.

The IOC wants to know whether any other Sydney athletes are implicated in the BALCO files. “It makes no sense to distribute medals now and take them back in six months,” said a senior IOC official involved in the case who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Jones won gold medals in the 100 metres, 200 and 1,600 relay in Sydney, and bronze in the long jump and the 400 relay. She returned the medals last year after admitting she was doping at the time of the Sydney Games.

The IOC formally stripped Jones of her medals at its last executive board meeting in December. But the board delayed a decision on the relay teams and reallocation of medals, including whether to upgrade doping-tainted Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou to gold in the 100.

The three-member disciplinary panel dealing with the Jones case is set to recommend to the board on Thursday that both relay teams be disqualified, but that any medal changes be put off, the IOC official said.—AP