Former Olympic champion Marion Jones [Images] can return to the sprinting elite, says ex-hurdler Jeff Howser who is assisting with her coaching.

Jones, who is formally coached by Steve Riddick, also practices with Howser's group three or four days a week.

"She looks good. Her starts are getting better and she is looking technically very sound," said Howser, a US Olympic Trials hurdles finalist in 1968 and 1972.

"I think she can break 11 [seconds]. I think she can be close to 10.90," he said.

That would put 30-year-old Jones among the world's top athletes again but is more than two tenths of a second slower than her 1998 personal best of 10.65 seconds.

She clocked 11.06 seconds for an easy 100 metres win over former world champion Torri Edwards in Mexico last Saturday in her first race for 11 months. Her time, at altitude, is the third fastest in the world this season.

Riddick, who has been indicted on federal bank fraud charges and did not travel to Mexico, confirmed Howser is working with Jones on her starts at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina but said he is still providing the sprinter's workouts.

"Me and Marion talk about two or three times a day." Riddick said via telephone from his Norfolk, Virginia office.

TECHNICAL STUFF

Howser, the speed, agility and conditioning coach at Duke University, also coaches US sprinter Jason Smoots and Briton Daniel Caines, the 2003 world indoor 400 silver medallist.

"Marion is still working mostly Riddick's workouts. I'm doing the hands-on, technical stuff with her," Howser said.

"He [Riddick] is still the coach of record."

Jones, who won five medals at the 2000 Olympics [Images] including three golds, has run poorly since having a son with ex-partner Tim Montgomery in June 2003. The couple separated last year.

Montgomery retired from the sport in December after getting a two-year doping ban and being stripped of his 2002 100 metres world record by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

He never failed a doping test but CAS accepted evidence from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that Montgomery had taken banned substances provided by California laboratory BALCO.

Jones has also been under scrutiny in connection with the BALCO doping scandal but has never been charged. She has never failed a doping test and has denied taking banned substances.

Like Riddick, Montgomery has also been indicted on federal bank fraud charges. Both deny the charges.

"With Tim, those are problems and issues that he has to deal with," Jones told reporters in Mexico at the weekend.

"I have my own life. I have my priorities and my priorities are my son and my training and my family.

"It has been a challenge the past few years. You don't know all of it but with the support of all the people that believe in me I've got through it."