U.S. Track Team Took a Big Risk, Paper Says

The entire U.S. Olympic track and field team risked being declared ineligible for the Los Angeles Games after a South African athlete competed at the U.S. Olympic trials, according to revelations published in the London Sunday Times.

Pete Cava, press information officer of The Athletics Congress, the governing body for track and field in the United States, admitted that an “oversight” allowed South African Patsy Sharples of the University of Idaho to compete in the women’s 10,000-meter exhibition race at the trials.

Under the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s rules, South Africans are ineligible to run in events held under the auspices of the IAAF, and anyone who knowingly competes against a South African should be automatically suspended under Rule 53 (i).

IAAF General Secretary John Holt told UPI Saturday: “If the law is applied strictly, then she should not have been allowed to compete and the meet was tainted. The American athletes could, in theory, have been disbarred from the Olympics.

“But a rule-of-thumb applies to this kind of thing. We allow dispensation to South Africans who run in domestic meetings if they are at an overseas college.”

Sharples finished 22nd and last in the race.

Tamara McKinney of Olympic Valley, Calif., competing only three days after her father’s death, took over the lead in the World Cup slalom standings with a victory at Waterville Valley, N.H.

The 21-year-old McKinney completed each of the runs in 46.55 seconds for a cumulative clocking of 1:33.10.

Italy’s Maria Rosa Quario was second at 1:33.45, and Anni Kronbichler of Austria third at 1:34.21.

McKinney, the 1984 slalom champion, moved from seventh to first in the standings. She has 82 points to 73 for runner-up Erika Hess of Switzerland, who failed to add any points to her total after finishing 11th.

Switzerland’s Peter Mueller won his second straight World Cup race in the 10th and final downhill of the season on Panorama Mountain in Invermere, Canada.

Teammate Daniel Mahrer was second, and Austria’s Helmut Hoeflehner, who clinched the 1985 World Cup downhill title last week, was third.

The leading American was Doug Lewis, who finished 18th.

Rhoman Rule, the 6-5 second choice, pulled away in the stretch to win by eight lengths in the $110,000 Everglades Stakes for 3-year-olds at Hialeah Race Course.

Creme Fraiche was second, six lengths in front of Irish Sur, the 4-5 favorite, with Block Party fourth in a field of eight.

The winner ran the 1 1/8 miles in 1:47 4/5 and paid $4.60, $4.40 and $2.60.

The Formula One Auto Grand Prix scheduled for Rome Oct. 13 has been canceled, the Italian Automobile Club (ACI) announced.

ACI told the International Auto Racing Federation (FISA) it will not be able to stage the race. FISA can assign the date to another venue.

The event was to have been staged in a suburb on Rome’s southern outskirts, a modernistic district of marble buildings and geometrically straight streets. The project has evoked bitter controversy, mainly on grounds of potential danger and inconvenience to the inhabitants of the suburb, which also houses several government ministries.

Names in the News

The University of South Carolina extended the contract of football Coach Joe Morrison through 1989.

A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted former Atlanta Falcon running back Harmon Wages on charges of cocaine possession, perjury and intent to distribute cocaine.

The Philadelphia Eagles said they have contacted the Houston Oilers about trading for Houston’s No. 2 pick in the NFL draft and the right to select University of Miami quarterback Bernie Kosar.