Chinese Athletes Lose Medals

Eleven Chinese competitors in October’s Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan, where China won 137 gold medals, were stripped of their medals Saturday after testing positive for drugs, the Olympic Council of Asia said.

The 11 included five women and six men. According to the Xinhua news agency, the women were swimmers Yang Aihua, Lu Bin and Zhou Guanbin, hurdler Han Qing and cyclist Wang Yan. The men were swimmers Xiong Guoming, Hu Bin, Zhang Bin and Fu Yong, and canoeists Zhang Lei and Qiu Suoren.

Two of them, swimmers Lu Bin and Xiong Guoming, each won four gold medals at the Games.

An OCA statement said urine samples of the 11 competitors all showed traces of Dehydrotestosterone, DHT, a drug banned by the International Olympic Committee.

The Chinese Olympic Committee issued a statement saying a special panel had been formed to launch an investigation and impose “severe punishment” on those involved, including coaches.

Golf

Nick Faldo lost his putting touch and most of a huge advantage but still led by two strokes over Ernie Els after shooting a one-over-par 73 in the Million Dollar Challenge at Sun City, South Africa.

Second three times in the chase for golf’s richest first prize--$1 million--Faldo lost most of his seven-stroke lead to a hard-charging Els, whose 67 was the best round of the day.

Robert Gamez and Helen Alfredsson shot a best-ball seven-under 64 to claim a one-shot lead in the JC Penney Classic at Tarpon Springs, Fla.

The event teams LPGA pros with PGA Tour and Senior PGA Tour pros.

One shot behind at 18-under going into today’s alternate-shot format were the teams of Beth Daniel and Davis Love III, and Amy Alcott and Robin Freeman.

Tiger Woods, the U.S. Amateur champion, was mugged Wednesday night at Stanford, where he is a freshman. He was not injured.

Winter Sports

Wayne Gretzky and his NHL all-stars opened their European tour with a 7-1 victory over Finnish champion Jokerit at Helsinki.

Achim Vogt of Liechtenstein, with only two top-10 finishes in his career, won the first men’s World Cup ski event of the season, winning a giant slalom at Tignes, France.

Nearly 13 years after her only victory on the World Cup circuit, Austrian Sylvia Eder, 29, won again, capturing the first women’s World Cup super-giant slalom race of the season at Vail, Colo.

Olympic gold medalist Kurt Brugger and Wilfried Huber of Italy edged the U.S. doubles team of Chris Thorpe and Gordi Sheer to win a World Cup luge event at Winterberg, Germany. Jane Bode of Germany was the winner in women’s singles.

Gunda Niemann of Germany won both her World Cup speedskating races at Heerenveen, Netherlands, to remain unbeaten after two meets this season.

Niemann won the 1,500 meters and the 3,000.

Hiroyuki Noake of Japan won the only men’s race of the day, the 1,500 meters.

Miscellany

While the Angels may be planning for Pedro Guerrero to be a strike-replacement player, Guerrero’s agent said that the designated hitter has no plans to cross the picket line.

“Pedro owes too much to too many people to do something like that,” Tony Attanasio said. “He will not be a scab.”

In other news, the Angels appear to have fallen out of contention for the free-agent services of right-handed starter Kevin Gross. Gross, who played the last four seasons with the Dodgers, has received a two-year offer from the Texas Rangers that will at least match his annual salary of $2.7 million.

Jim Courier pulled out of this week’s $6-million Grand Slam Cup at Munich, Germany--the world’s richest tennis tournament--because of a foot injury.

Hurdler Edwin Moses, javelin thrower Kate Schmidt and three who were honored posthumously--New York City Marathon founder Fred Lebow, high jumper Cornelius Johnson and all-around field performer Lillian Copeland--were inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in St. Louis.

Boxing

Eloy Rojas of Venezuela retained his World Boxing Assn. featherweight title, outpointing Luis Mendoza of Colombia in 12 rounds after knocking down the challenger twice in the final round at Bogota, Colombia.

Anaclet Wamba of France retained his World Boxing Council cruiserweight crown, outpointing Marcelo Dominguez of Argentina in a majority decision at Salta, Argentina.

Swimming

Mel Stewart set an American record of 1:54.76. in the 200-meter butterfly at the U.S. Open championships at Erie Community College in Buffalo, N.Y.

Sweden broke its world 200-meter freestyle relay record by 0.32 seconds with a time of 1:27.62 in the European Sprint Swimming Championships at Stavanger, Norway.

Zsolt Hegmegi, Lars-Ove Jansson, Joakim Holmqvist and Per Lindstrom swam the 50-meter legs.