DNA Test Results Link Albert to Assault Case

DNA evidence links Marv Albert to a bite mark on the back of the woman who says the sportscaster sexually assaulted her, according to a police laboratory report released Monday.

The genetic tests also link Albert to semen stains recovered from the woman’s underwear and skin, the report by the Virginia state crime lab at Arlington concluded.

The report is part of the sodomy and assault case against Albert, who has denied the 42-year-old Vienna (Va.) woman’s allegations. The NBC sportscaster has not entered a plea and goes to trial Sept. 22 in Arlington County Circuit Court.

The Virginia Division of Forensic Science report found only a one-in-2.6 billion chance some of the samples taken from the woman could have come from someone other than Albert.

Albert’s lawyer, Roy Black, criticized Virginia authorities for releasing the report, but did not address the findings.

Motor Sports

Indy cars will return to the Atlanta Motor Speedway next year for the first time since 1983. The Indy Racing League announced a new race, the Atlanta 500 Classic, which will be run Aug. 29, 1998, and will offer a purse of more than $1 million.

NASCAR officials today will announce a Winston Cup stock car race March 1 or March 8 at the 110,000-seat Las Vegas Speedway oval. The race will take the spot now held by the Pontiac Excitement 400 in Richmond, Va.

College Basketball

California Coach Ben Braun agreed to a new five-year contract that will run through the 2001-2002 season. Last season, his first at Cal, Braun was voted Pacific 10 coach of the year for leading the Golden Bears to a 23-9 record--the best by a Cal men’s basketball team in 37 years--and a berth in the final 16 in the NCAA tournament.

Swimming

Led by Jenny Thompson of Stanford, American swimmers won five of eight events at the biennial Pan Pacific meet in Fukuoka, Japan, and tied Australia for the overall lead with eight gold medals apiece. Thompson, a five-time Olympic champion, defeated China’s 1996 Olympic gold medalist and world-record holder Le Jingyi by .04 of a second in the 100-meter freestyle, finishing in 54.82 seconds, a meet record.

Olympic Games

Authorities in Stockholm discounted an extremist group’s claim that it had planted the bomb that damaged the 1912 Olympic stadium, and said they remain confident the incident will not hurt Stockholm’s bid to hold the 2004 Summer Games.

Tennis

Andre Agassi ended a seven-match losing streak but still struggled as he defeated unseeded Davide Sanguinetti, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, in the first round of the $1 million RCA Championships at Indianapolis. . . . Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova, citing difficulties in her family’s application for permanent resident status in the United States, withdrew from the du Maurier Open in Toronto. . . . Jimmy Connors defeated Bjorn Borg, 4-6, 6-3, 10-6, to win the 35-and-over Citibank Champions tournament in New York. . . . Alex O’Brien, the No. 14 seed, returned to the site of his only singles title, easily beating Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, 6-3, 6-1, in the $1.04 million Pilot Pen International in New Haven, Conn.

Miscellany

The Kings re-signed left wing Craig Johnson, a restricted free agent, to a one-year contract. . . . The Galaxy will start goalkeeper Jorge Campos tonight against Luis Angel Firpo of El Salvador in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Cup of Champions at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C.

The Golden State Warriors have traded five-time All-Star Chris Mullin to the Indiana Pacers for second-year center Erick Dampier and veteran forward Duane Ferrell, according CNN-SI, but both teams denied a deal is done. . . . W. Lee Schroeder, vice president for finance and administration at Oregon State, was named interim athletic director, succeeding Dutch Baughman, who resigned last week. . . . Roy Chipman, who took Pittsburgh into Big East basketball and had a 102-76 record in six seasons as coach, died of liver and colon cancer in Pittsburgh. He was 58.

Rod Carter, a linebacker on Miami’s 1987 national championship team who is a driver for United Parcel Service, was stabbed Thursday in Miami while making deliveries after crossing a picket line. Police have arrested four suspects and are searching for two others. . . Doug Adams, 48, a linebacker on Ohio State’s 1968 national championship team who later played for the Cincinnati Bengals, was killed when a vehicle struck him while he rode his bicycle in eastern Brown County, Ohio.

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* Randy Harvey is on vacation