By Rob Gloster
SAN FRANCISCO, July 8 AP - Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, the world’s fastest couple, have selected a new coach after an unsettled few months that included a controversial flirtation with coach Charlie Francis.
Dan Pfaff, assistant coach at the University of Texas for the past seven years, will relocate from Austin, Texas, to work with Jones and Montgomery in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Pfaff, 49, who also spent 11 seasons as a coach at Louisiana State University, is the former coach of Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey - the 1996 Olympic champion in the 100 and a former world record holder.
He has concentrated at Texas on field events, which appears to indicate Jones - who has dominated at 100 and 200 meters in recent years - plans to refocus on the long jump as well as the sprints.
Pfaff will begin working immediately with Montgomery, who broke the world record in the 100 last year but has struggled at times this season.
He will start working with Jones in early September. Jones has taken this season off to have a baby, Tim Montgomery, who was born June 28.
We are extremely excited and looking forward to working with someone as experienced as Dan,'' Jones and Montgomery said in a statement released by Jones' publicist, Lewis Kay. We feel that Dan will bring an element to our training that we have never experienced before, particularly his expertise as a technician in the sprints as well as the long jump.’’
Jones, who won an unprecedented five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, plans to return to competition in time for the 2004 Athens Games. Montgomery is considered a favourite in the 100 at the world championships this August in Paris.
The selection of Pfaff ended a long search for Montgomery and Jones.
They broke with coach Trevor Graham early this year and then had a short relationship with coaching pariah Francis - who was connected to steroid use by Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson in the 1980s.
``A coach is like a father figure - you put your life in his hands,’’ Montgomery said.
What will the effect be for Pfaff’s other elite athletes (O. Thompson, M. Boswell, etc.)?
I told you KT!
