China Blasts U.S. for Opposing Bid

Chinese officials Wednesday described as “unacceptable” U.S.-led political opposition to Beijing’s bid to stage the 2000 Olympics and said human rights should not be an issue in the International Olympic Committee’s decision.

Resolutions have been introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives urging the IOC to reject Beijing’s bid.

“This is very badly seen by the IOC because it represents an attack on Olympic principles,” said He Zhenliang, an IOC vice president from China who is on the Beijing bid committee, at a media conference at Lausanne, Switzerland. “It is unacceptable.”

Another IOC vice president, Kevan Gosper of Australia, has warned that China might boycott the Atlanta Games in 1996 if it feels that U.S. “interference” is responsible for dooming the Beijing bid.

The IOC will select the host city for 2000 by secret ballot at Monte Carlo on Sept. 23. Beijing is considered among the two front-runners, along with Sydney, Australia.

Football

The Phoenix Cardinals signed Ram linebacker Scott Stephen to a one-year contract. Stephen, a six-year veteran, did not figure in the Rams’ plans this season. He began the 1992 season with Green Bay but was placed on waivers and claimed by the Rams midway through the season.

Bill Tobin resigned as the Chicago Bears’ vice president of player personnel, citing differences with the team’s management.

A Texas A&M; alumnus whose association with an Aggie quarterback once got the school put on probation has been hired by the school to sell memorabilia in honor of the 100th year of A&M; football.

A Dallas firm owned by longtime booster Rod Dockery could make as much as $1 million to merchandise centennial football literature, posters, videos and other items, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Sailing

A record 136 boats are entered in eight classes of the ninth annual Trimble Navigation/North Sails Race Week, starting at Long Beach on Friday. Five mixed classes will be racing under Performance Handicap Racing Fleet ratings.

All are boats with keels, from the smallest J/24s to the largest, up to 58 feet. The three-day event will determine the Schock 35s’ Pacific Coast championship and the J/35s’ season championship.

Friday’s race at 4 p.m. and Sunday’s finale at 11:30 a.m. will start inside the breakwater. Saturday’s two races will start outside the breakwater, the first at 11:30.

Miscellany

Casey Boyns set the pace as the match-play portion of the 82nd annual California Golf Assn. (State) Championship sliced the field to eight quarterfinalists at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Others advancing included 1982 winner Gary Vanier of Pleasant Hill, Todd Andrews of Solana Beach, Steve Woods of Ontario, Kevin Riley of El Cajon, Jason McDaniel of San Clemente, Sal Enriquez of Upland and Joey Ferrari of Lodi.

Attorneys for Gary Sheffield entered a not-guilty plea on behalf of the San Diego Padre third baseman on a misdemeanor assault charge in Houston. Sheffield was arrested June 16 in front of a restaurant near the Astrodome.

An NCAA committee looking into the financial condition of college athletics recommended limits on the size of football squads and coaching staffs.

Recommendations from the special committee, chaired by Big Ten Conference Commissioner Jim Delaney, will go to the NCAA Presidents Commission, which meets in Kansas City, Mo., next week.

Juan Martin Coggi of Argentina successfully defended his World Boxing Assn. junior-welterweight title by knocking out Japanese challenger Hiroyuki Yoshino at 2:15 of the fifth round at Tokyo.

Tom Petranoff, a former world record-holder in the javelin, won the first gold medal at the African track and field championships at Durban, South Africa.

Petranoff, a former U.S. resident now living in South Africa, threw the javelin 270 feet 4 inches on his first throw. In the other final, Christy Opara of Nigeria won the women’s long jump at 21-6 3/4.

Ken Norton Jr., James Washington and Derek Tennell of the Dallas Cowboys, plus several other former Bruins, will serve as guest instructors at the UCLA football camp, which is scheduled June 28-July 2 and is being held on the UCLA campus for the first time.

Names in the News

Former UCLA safety Othello Henderson, a seventh-round pick, has signed a three-year contract with the New Orleans Saints. . . . Carl Neufeld, assistant coach at USC the past four seasons, has been hired as men’s tennis coach at Southern Methodist.