TOO TOUGH A COURSE

The International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs track and field, contributed to the reconstruction of Sarajevo’s Olympic Stadium, damaged by artillery shelling during the conflict between Muslims and Serbs.

Now, to celebrate the reopening of the stadium that was used for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Winter Games, the IAAF has scheduled a track meet there Sept. 15. Athletes who compete in the Grand Prix final two nights earlier in Milan, Italy, will be flown to Sarajevo on military transport planes.

After hearing of the idea, Italian skier Alberto Tomba decided to arrange a slalom race in the hills above Sarajevo as a memorial to victims of the civil war. But he said while visiting the Summer Olympics last week that he was informed that it would be too dangerous. The hills have been swept for mines, but military officials are not sure that they found them all.