OLYMPIC ROUNDUP : Aouita Might Not Run; Spain’s Myers Is Out

Moroccan track star Said Aouita said injuries might force him to miss the Barcelona Olympics, Moroccan state radio reported Monday.

Interviewed in France where he is training, Aouita said he will make a final decision this week after consulting doctors about the injuries, which he did not specify.

Aouita, 32, holds world records at Olympic distances of 1,500 and 5,000 meters, as well as at 2,000 meters and 3,000 meters and a world best mark over two miles.

He won a bronze medal at 800 meters at the 1988 Olympics, but injury forced him out of the 1,500 meters after he qualified for the semifinals.

Sandra Myers, the Kansas native bidding to become the first Spanish woman to win a medal in the Summer Olympics, will miss her chance because of a nagging leg injury.

Myers, a UCLA graduate who took out Spanish citizenship four years ago, placed third at 400 meters in the 1991 World Championships and was among the medal favorites in the event in Barcelona until injuring her Achilles’ tendon two months ago.

Myers, 31, has spent two frustrating months resting and undergoing various treatments to help the injury heal.

“Little by little it’s getting better and a month from now I’ll probably be fine, but now I’m in no shape to compete--it’s just bad timing,” she said.

Myers came to Spain after she failed to make the United States team for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. She eventually married a Spaniard, took out Spanish citizenship, and ran for Spain in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

“It was a dream to win a medal in Barcelona,” said Myers, who has a best of 49.67 in the 400. “Now I’ll think about Atlanta (site of the 1996 Olympics).”

U.S.-born javelin thrower Tom Petranoff, at the center of a controversy left over from apartheid, has been officially nominated to join the South African Olympic team, a South African track and field official said.

“Athletics South Africa sent a fax this morning to the National Olympic Committee of South Africa nominating Petranoff for the squad,” Athletics South Africa manager Gert le Roux said in a telephone interview.

The dispute over Petranoff, who took out South African citizenship after participating in a tour of the country three years ago in defiance of a boycott over apartheid, blew up earlier this month when a faction of Athletics South Africa objected to his inclusion on the team for Barcelona.

The national Olympic committee initially said Petranoff was off the team, but later backtracked, saying it was up to Athletics South Africa to decide. Petranoff threatened legal action against the national Olympic committee.

A United Nations committee again postponed a decision on whether Yugoslav athletes will be allowed to participate as individuals at Barcelona, a U.N. official said.

The issue appeared to be whether they would be grouped as a team, even without Yugoslav uniforms, anthem or flag.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the committee will meet this morning and make a final decision on a compromise plan that would allow athletes from the truncated nation of Yugoslavia to participate.

The IOC’s Executive Board is scheduled to make a decision today.