WORLD SPORTS SCENE : Not All Can Throw a Good Track Meet

The chance to play host to major international sporting events is something many nations desire because it not only allows officials to showcase their countries but gives them legitimacy in the global marketplace.

But two recent events illustrate why sports leaders often are leery of bids from nations with little experience in this area.

The International Olympic Committee must be more relieved than ever that it chose Sydney, Australia to organize the 2000 Summer Olympics rather than Beijing after the political angst the Chinese suffered as hosts to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women.

Resources were lacking in Beijing, but a far greater problem was the Chinese paranoia over the free flow of independent ideas of women from throughout the world. Some women, including Chinese, were not admitted to the conference because of political reasons, and others reported that overbearing security prevented them from moving about freely.

On the other side of the world, Zimbabwe officials were embarrassed by their efforts to host the sixth All-Africa Games last week. They said the event had grown too large to manage efficiently. Tommy Sithole, head of the organizing committee, said they simply could not handle the 19 medal events and two exhibitions. One sample: A failed timing device at the national stadium created long delays in processing results for track and field.

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This just in from China, where ancient treatments, not artificial enhancements, are allegedly giving some of their athletes an edge:

The use of obscure Tibetan herbs are helping Chinese divers fight exhaustion from hectic schedules, according to a southern China newspaper. Xu Yiming, coach of the Chinese national diving team, is mixing a fatigue-relief tonic with extracts from the herbs, the newspaper reported. Xu reportedly met a Tibetan herbalist who introduced him to 10 herbs believed to relieve exhaustion. Four of the herbs purportedly rebuild body strength and ease mental strain.

The report comes with China under increasing scrutiny for developing swimmers and runners through the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

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Whatever the divers are doing, they are clearly dominating the international arena. In the last major competition of 1995, the World Cup in Atlanta last week, Chinese divers took 13 of a possible 16 medals, including seven gold. U.S. divers won only three medals, all in the newly adopted sport of synchronized diving. The major surprises were the poor performances by Canada’s women, who failed to win a medal and Mexico’s Fernando Platas, who failed to make the platform final and finished 12th in the three-meter springboard final. Platas won both events at last spring’s Pan American Games.

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For the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran is sending women into international competition with the participation of a team in the Oct. 2-8 Asian Canoeing Championships at Beijing. Most of the credit should go to the efforts of the daughter of President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a leading advocate for the development of women’s sports.

World Scene Notes

The IOC Congress on Sport Sciences began Sunday at Atlanta. It is the first opportunity for IOC medical commission members to meet and discuss the direction of drug testing after the death by heart attack of Dr. Manfred Donike of Germany, their scientific and inspirational leader for two decades. . . . The more than 300,000 applicants for tickets to the 1996 Summer Olympics will begin finding out this week how successful they were at getting the tickets they want.

Diver Brian Earley of Irvine, who graduated last year from USC, is moving to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to train for the Olympics with Coach Ron O’Brien. . . . Gary Hall, a three-time Olympian whose son Gary Hall Jr. is hoping to make the U.S. team next year, asked the U.S. Olympic Committee if he could buy tickets for the Atlanta Games. He was told to put his name in a lottery.

After winning the world championship in the 100 meters, Canada’s Donovan Bailey can’t seem to win a race. But who could with his schedule? Within eight days, he ran races in Monte Carlo, New Delhi and Tokyo. . . . Allen Johnson beat Mark Crear for only the second time in seven races this summer Friday at Tokyo, but that might be enough for Johnson to claim No. 1 in the world in the 110-meter hurdles over the former USC star. Besides winning the world championship, Johnson also has the two fastest times in the world this season. . . .Decathlon followers are upset because of three-time world champion Dan O’Brien’s withdrawal from the DecaStar Invitational last weekend at Talence, France. O’Brien officially withdrew because of an injury three days after winning a made-for-television, one-hour decathlon at Pullman, Wash., but DecaStar organizers claim O’Brien said in a television interview even before the Pullman event that he would not go to Talence. They believe he put the chance to earn a lucrative payday--$25,000 to the winner--ahead of a chance to compete against the best in the world at Talence. So what’s new?

Times staff writer Randy Harvey contributed to this story.