Jones Is Cleared After Second Test

Marion Jones was absolved of a potential doping violation Wednesday when tests found no evidence of the prohibited blood-boosting drug erythropoietin in a urine sample she had submitted June 23 at the U.S. championships, contradicting an initial positive result that was made public last month.

A conclusive positive result cannot be declared unless both the “A” and “B” samples test positive for a banned substance, or if an athlete’s “A” sample tests positive and the athlete forgoes a test of the “B” sample. Samples are taken at the same time and divided for testing purposes.

Jones withdrew from a meet in Zurich, Switzerland, on Aug. 18 after learning that her “A” sample from June 23 had shown traces of EPO. She has not competed since then. “Marion wants to run as soon as possible,” Rich Nichols, one of her attorneys, said Wednesday.

Jones was enjoying an impressive season and appeared to have regained the form she displayed before the birth of her son in June 2003. She had finished first or second in the 100 meters in all seven meets in which she participated, including winning the 100 at the U.S. championships at Indianapolis.

Her season-best time of 10.91 seconds at the Golden Gala in Rome on July 14 was her best since her undefeated 2002 season, when she was timed in 10.90. It’s also the third-fastest time in the world this season.

When the positive result of her “A” sample from Indianapolis became known, Jones said she was “shocked” and requested an expedited processing of her “B” sample. That was carried out last week at the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, and the results were forwarded to her attorneys on Wednesday.

“I am absolutely ecstatic,” she said in a statement. “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.”

Another of her attorneys, Los Angeles-based Howard Jacobs, praised the execution of the “scientific part of the testing protocols,” but lamented the leak of the result of the “A” sample.

“Marion was wrongfully accused of a doping violation and her reputation was unfairly questioned,” Jacobs said. “The ‘B’ sample did not confirm the ‘A’ positive result and Marion is now free to compete.”

Jones, 30, won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Although she had never tested positive before June, she has long been under investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, in no small part because of her associations with athletes who have been suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs.

Her ex-husband, shotputter C.J. Hunter, served a two-year ban for using the banned steroid nandrolone, and her former boyfriend, Tim Montgomery -- the father of her son -- is midway through a two-year doping suspension. In addition, Jones was coached for five years by Trevor Graham, who has been accused by Montgomery and Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, of dispensing banned drugs.

Nearly a dozen athletes who have worked with Graham have been sanctioned for using performance-enhancing substances, including Athens Olympic sprint champion Justin Gatlin. Organizers of a meet earlier this month in Berlin had shunned Jones and other athletes coached by Graham.

helene.elliott@latimes.com