Australian Olympic chief John Coates has said Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou should not be awarded the Sydney Olympics 100 metres gold medal handed back by Marion Jones.

Jones, who this week admitted to steroid use in the build up to the Sydney Games, has returned the three gold medals and two bronzes she won in 2000.

But Thanou, the silver medalist in Sydney, was herself banned for two years after she failed to appear for a drugs test at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

"I'd like to think that Katerina Thanou would not be awarded the gold medal," Coates told the Australian Associated Press on Tuesday.  "But there may be some legal difficulties for the International Olympic Committee to overcome in order to reach that conclusion."

Relay medals
Jamaica's Tayna Lawrence won the 100m bronze medal in Sydney behind Jones and Thanou. Coates also said he expected the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to hand back the medals won by the women's 4x100M and 4x400M relay teams.

Two of Jones's team mates in the 4x100m squad which finished third in Sydney, Torri Edwards and Chryste Gaines, have also served doping bans.

The US women's 4x100m relay team won the gold medal ahead of Jamaica and Russia.

"On the relays, it's my expectation that the United States Olympic Committee will be required to also hand back the medals won by the other ladies who competed with Jones in the two relays," Coates said.

Meanwhile, Jamaican-born sprinter Merlene Ottey could add to her record tally of eight Olympic medals thanks to the fall from grace of Jones, adds Reuters from Ljubljana.

Jones, who won the 100 metres gold at the 2000 Sydney Games ahead of fourth-placed Ottey, last week admitted to taking steroids and has returned her medals to the US Olympic Committee.

Ottey, 40 at the time of the race, is now in line to receive the bronze. "I'm sure she will get that medal. That's automatic now," said Ottey's Slovenian coach Srdjan Djordjevic.

"Of course I would have been happier if she'd got the medal back then," added Djordjevic, who has coached Ottey since she moved to the Alpine Republic in 1998.

Ottey became a Slovenian citizen in 2002.