Marion Jones to compete at Kansas Relays

Three-time Olympic champion Marion Jones will be among the featured athletes at the Kansas Relays GOLD ZONE from 2 to 5 p.m. April 23 in Memorial Stadium. Fellow Olympians Maurice Green, Stacy Dragila, Allen Johnson, Nick Hysong and Savatheda Fynes also will compete in the premier event. The 78th Kansas Relays are set for April 21-23.

“Marion is one of the most recognizable figures in athletics today, and her appearance at the GOLD ZONE will bring a tremendous energy to Memorial Stadium,” said Tim Weaver, meet director for the relays. “ I can say without exaggeration that this GOLD ZONE will be the greatest collection of Olympic talent that the Kansas Relays has ever seen.”

Jones achieved superstar status at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, where she claimed gold medals in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, and 4x400-meter relay. She also won bronze medals there in the long jump and 4x100-meter relay. Jones has been crowned World Champion on five occasions and won the U.S. Championships 15 times. She gave birth to a son in 2003 and returned to action last year to win the long jump competition at the Olympic Trials.

“I'm really looking forward to competing at the Kansas Relays for the first time,” Jones said. “It's one of those historic meets that now everyone is talking about again. I’m going to run a 4x200 meter relay there with Muna Lee, LaShinda Demus, and Stephanie Durst—that's three Olympians and an NCAA Champion. We've all run some pretty fast 200s in the past, so I’m excited to see what we can do together as a team. We'll give the fans something to cheer about, that’s for sure."

The GOLD ZONE will debut in 2005 as part of the Kansas Relays schedule. It will feature the most popular high school, college and invitational events in a three-hour block. Highlighted events will include the finals of all dashes, the 4x100 and 4x400 relay finals, the invitational pole vaults and high jumps, the women’s steeplechase and the men’s mile run. The GOLD ZONE has commitments from six Olympic Champions, 33 total Olympians, and 41 NCAA Champions.

“Tim Weaver and I felt very strongly that for the concept of the GOLD ZONE to work, we had to have the biggest names in track and field compete here,” said KU Athletics Director Lew Perkins. “Now we can add Marion Jones, the most famous female track athlete in the world, to that list. We’re going to give people exactly what they’ve been asking for—a world-class meet in Memorial Stadium in under three hours.”

Also running with Jones will be Muna Lee, a 2000 graduate of Central High School in Kansas City, Mo. She concluded a stellar career at Louisiana State University, where she won six NCAA titles. She won the silver medal in the 200-meter dash running in lane one at the Olympic Trials, and tied for seventh at the Olympic games in Athens in that event. She finished the year ranked seventh in the world by Track and Field News.

“Muna is one of the bright young stars that emerged from the Athens Games,” Weaver said. “The GOLD ZONE will be a great opportunity for Kansas City to welcome her home.”