U.S. May Have Lost Olympians Harris, Joyner : Track and field: Hurdler reportedly failed a drug test. Triple jumper says he is suffering from stress.

The United States has lost at least two potential medalists from its Olympic track and field team if reports are true about Danny Harris, and Al Joyner means it when he says he won’t compete at Barcelona this summer.

Harris, ranked No. 2 in the world last season in the 400-meter hurdles, has withdrawn from Sunday’s New York Games for “personal reasons.”

It was reported Friday, however, that Harris, from Perris, Calif., failed a drug test and was ineligible to compete.

At a news conference in Los Angeles on Friday, Joyner said that stress from a May 8 confrontation with police has made it impossible to train for next month’s Olympic trials in New Orleans.

The 1984 gold medalist in the triple jump, Joyner was pulled over twice in Hollywood for what police said was routine questioning. Joyner said he was harassed.

Joyner said he was held at gunpoint, handcuffed and forced to kneel before being released, and that he has lost sleep--as well as 10 pounds--since the incident.

“I just couldn’t train,” Joyner said. “This isn’t like I pulled a muscle or had a bad day. This is messing with my frame of mind. Given that, I have no choice but to give up on the Olympics this year.”

Harris, the 1984 silver medalist in the 400 meters, tested positive for a banned substance at a meet earlier in the year, the New York Times reported. That meet is believed to have been the national indoor championships at Madison Square Garden in February.

Officials of The Athletics Congress, which governs the sport nationally, do not comment on drug cases until they are resolved. Neither Harris nor his coach, Bob Kersee, was available for comment.

Meet officials for the New York Games would not comment on the matter Friday but said Thursday that Kersee informed them, without elaborating, that Harris would not run.

If Harris tested positive, he will be ineligible to compete while appeal hearings are in process. If his appeal is denied, Harris could be suspended for four years, preventing him from competing in this summer’s Barcelona Olympics, and the world championships of 1993 and 1995.

With the absence of Edwin Moses in the 400 hurdles, Harris has reigned as the top American. Despite his fifth-place finish at the world championships in August at Tokyo, Harris is considered an Olympic medal contender.

Harris, a former football player at Iowa State, was the 1984 Olympic silver medalist in the 400-meter hurdles. He ended Moses’ 122-race winning streak in 1987 in Spain, Moses’ first loss in the event in 11 years.

Notes

The Athletics Congress announced that sprinter Greg Moses was suspended for four years and Louisiana State discus thrower John Nichols was suspended for two years for doping violations. Moses, 27, of Athens, Ga., was suspended for failing to appear for a drug test during the week of Feb. 10. He tested positive for cocaine at the 1990 U.S. Indoor Championships and was suspended for two years, through Feb. 24, 1992. During the suspension, he was required to undergo periodic testing, under international rules. Moses did not appeal his suspension and is ineligible through Feb. 24, 1996.