ATHENS: The 100-metre world silver medal stripped from disgraced US athlete Marion Jones has arrived in Athens to be handed to Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou, the Greek athletics federation (SEGAS) said on Friday.

“We have informed Ms Thanou that the medal is here,” SEGAS chairman Vassilis Sevastis told AFP. “We expect that she will come to collect it sometime next week,” he added. The medal arrived in Athens on Wednesday, the federation said.

Thanou, 33, had originally won the bronze medal at Edmonton in 2001 after finishing behind Jones, who came second. The sport’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), in March awarded the silver to Thanou after Jones admitted using the banned steroid THG and was stripped of all her competition medals.

But Thanou is herself no stranger to doping controversy. She was involved in a major scandal on the eve of the Athens 2004 Olympics when, together with compatriot Costas Kenteris, she missed a drugs test. Thanou was subsequently banned for two years after missing what was her third test.

IAAF said they had no choice but to award Jones’s Edmonton medal to Thanou. Legally, we had no other choice,” IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said after the decision was made last March.

“There was no evidence of Thanou committing any doping offence during the period in question, which leaves us with no alternative but to award the medal to her,” he added.

Thanou could also end up with Jones’ 100m gold medal from the Sydney 2000 Olympics, a race in which the Greek had finished second. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has yet to decide how to re-allocate Jones’s five medals from the Sydney Games which have also been rescinded.

A decision on the matter could be taken in the upcoming IOC executive board meeting in Athens in June. Jones, 32, is serving a six-month prison sentence for lying about her steroid use. Ukraine’s Zhanna Block won the 100m gold medal in Edmonton.