Jones May Alter Her Relay Strategy

Marion Jones, winner of three gold medals at the Sydney Games, hinted Tuesday that she would skip the 400-meter relay this summer at the World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, and instead run a 1,600-meter relay leg.

“I can pretty much guarantee you I’ll be in the 200 simply because I have yet to win a world championship in the 200 meters,” said Jones, in London for the World Sports Awards. “I’ve yet to win a world championship in the long jump, so pretty much count me in on that one.

“The 100 is pretty much my forte, so I’ll be in that. I guess it depends on that relay, and I’ve kind of fallen in love with that 4-by-400-meter race.”

Jones was a member of the United States’ winning 1,600 relay team in Sydney, where she also won the 100 and 200. She won bronze medals in the long jump and 400 relay.

Jones will skip the indoor season. Her outdoor season begins in April at the Mt. SAC Relays.

She spoke briefly about her husband, world champion shotputter C.J. Hunter, who tested positive four times last year for the steroid nandrolone.

“C.J. has been talking to the lawyers to gain information about the allegations and we are excited about the future,” Jones said. “There will soon be important information out in the forefront to prove that all these positive tests are not realistic or true.”

Jurisprudence

Jurors in Charlotte, N.C., began deliberating in the murder trial of former NFL player Rae Carruth, accused of killing a woman because she was pregnant with his child.

The case went to the jurors shortly after the prosecutor said in his closing argument that Carruth was a charmer who hid his dark side from almost everyone. The jury recessed for the day about 5 p.m. EST and was to resume deliberations today.

Charlie McBride, who was an assistant football coach at Nebraska for 23 years, pleaded guilty in Lincoln, Neb., to drunk-driving charges and was placed on probation.

Miscellany

The Oakland Raiders’ Jon Gruden was added to a long list of candidates for the Ohio State football coaching vacancy. Other leading contenders to replace the fired John Cooper are Youngstown State Coach Jim Tressel, Minnesota Coach Glen Mason and former Ohio State linebacker Chris Spielman. Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti withdrew from consideration.

Albert Means, a lineman in the middle of a recruiting scandal, has enrolled at Memphis after withdrawing from Alabama last week after learning of accusations that his high school coach made $200,000 by steering him to the school.

After months of negotiations, Michigan has reached a seven-year deal with Nike that includes equipping the university’s 25 men’s and women’s varsity teams. The contract, worth about $25 million to $28 million, runs from Aug. 1, 2001, to July 31, 2008.

Ron Brant, coach of five-time national champion Blaine Wilson, was picked as coordinator of the U.S. men’s gymnastics team.

T.J. Simers, Times columnist, has been elected California sportswriter of the year in a vote of state members of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Assn. Simers, who covered the San Diego Chargers and the Rams for The Times and was the paper’s national pro football writer, began writing his column last summer.

Chick Hearn, longtime Laker broadcaster, was named state sportscaster of the year. National winners were Bob Costas of NBC and Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe.

Soccer

The European championship has netted its first profit in the 40-year history of the tournament, an organization spokesman said. The sale of nearly all of the 1.2 million tickets to last summer’s tournament, a boom in luxury VIP packages and the absence of major unexpected costs yielded a net profit of $17.3 million, said Euro 2000 Foundation spokesman Richard van der Eijk.

Jordan defeated Hong Kong, 2-0, at Margao, India, in Group C of the Millennium Cup to book a berth in the tournament’s quarterfinals. Yugoslavia also made the quarterfinals, defeating Bangladesh, 4-1, in a Group A match in the southern Indian port of Cochin. . . . Colombian player Farid Mondragon is to be tried by a Paris court for allegedly using a fake Greek passport, a judicial source told the Associated Press. . . . Arsenal’s former Dutch international striker Dennis Bergkamp signed a two-year contract extension with the English Premiership soccer club. . . . Midfielder Leonel Alvarez, a three-time MLS all-star for the New England Revolution, re-signed with Major League Soccer and will remain with the team.