The country's Sports Minister Elvin Penner signed the contract today and broke ground for the first phase of  a plan that it is hoped will transform the stadium in Belize, a country in Central America, formerly known as British Honduras, into a top-class facility.

 

The stadium was renamed after Jones after she carried a Belize flag on a lap of honour after winning one of her five medals, which included three gold, at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

 

It was the closest that Belize, who made their debut in the Olympics at the 1968 Games in Mexico City, had ever come to winning a medal.

 

But Jones, who was born in Los Angeles of a Belizean mother and who has been treated by Belizeans as a national hero, was forced to forfeit the three gold and two bronze medals she won the in the 2000 Olympics after she admitted that she had taken banned drugs to help her performances.

 

She also served six months in prison for lying to the FBI officers her a role in a cheque scam that her then boyfriend, the former world 100 metres record holder Tim Montgomery, was behind.

 

But the Belizean Government have so far resisted calls for the Marion Jones Stadium to be renamed and are now pushing on with their re-development plans for the stadium which will include a FIFA-standard football pitch and a top-level track and field facility.

 

Penner said: “We have finally completed our plans and drawings and everything for the fence, so that is actually what is being signed here today.

 

"One of the most important part of this contract is the track and field, which is very much what the Marion Jones was known for.

 

"So I believe that will still be quite fitting for us to be doing this project being that it’s the Marion Jones Stadium.”

 

Jones’ uncle, senator Godwin Hulse was at the groundbreaking, but was not on the list of speakers for the ceremony.