SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Members of Jamaica's track team threatened to boycott Olympic relay events to protest Merlene Ottey being given a spot in the 100 meters.

 A group of Jamaican runners, considered medal contenders in the relays, gathered in the international zone of the Olympic Village to publicize their threat Monday (Sunday night EDT), carrying placards reading, "Merlene out, Peta-Gaye in. No relays."

 Danny McFarlane, a 400-meter runner, said team officials had announced that Ottey would compete in the 100 in place of Peta-Gaye Dowdie, who beat her in the Jamaican Olympic track trials.

 "We don't think it's fair. If it happens, we are not going to run in our relays," McFarlane said. He said he would bow out of the 1,600-meter relay but run in his individual event.

 The Jamaican men's team is among the favorites for gold in the 1,600 relay, along with the United States, and Jamaican women are expected to challenge the United States for gold in the 400 relay.

 McFarlane and the other protesters sat in a semicircle at the international zone, where athletes can meet with visitors. Then they walked around the village area, holding the protest placards.

 This would be Ottey's sixth Olympics. The 40-year-old sprinter is returning from a one-year ban from international competition after traces of the steroid nandrolone were found in her system.

 She placed fourth in the 100 meters at the Jamaican trials in July, behind Dowdie, Beverley McDonald and Tanya Lawrence. The four were picked to run in the 400 relay.

 Ottey has won seven Olympic medals, including two silver at the 1996 Games. If she competes in the 100, one of the other runners would have to step aside.

 The Jamaican Amateur Athletic Association cleared Ottey of the drug charges within months, but the International Amateur Athletic Federation sent Ottey's case to arbitrators. On July 3, the IAAF lifted the ban after concluding the Swiss laboratory improperly tested Ottey's urine sample.