Sydney Organizers Won’t Fight Jones’ Drive for Five

Unlike Michael Johnson in 1996, Marion Jones won’t have to fight Olympic organizers for a chance to win multiple gold in the 2000 Sydney Games.

Jones’ bid to become the first female track athlete to win five gold medals is getting full support from the organizing committee (SOCOG). In Atlanta, late negotiations were needed to facilitate Johnson’s 200-400 double.

But SOCOG has designed a schedule around Jones and her attempt to win the 100-200 double, plus the long jump, and the 400 and 1,600-meter relays.

The former Thousand Oaks High star will be trying to surpass the achievement of Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands, who in 1948 became the only woman to win four golds in track and field.

“Five golds is not just talk,” Jones said recently. “It is possible. If any athlete can do it, it’s myself. I was born with a lot of talent, but I’m also a very hard worker.”

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Australian International Olympic Committee member Phil Coles was removed from his role as the Sydney 2000 Olympics torch relay chief. Coles is under investigation by the IOC for accepting excessive hospitality from the Salt Lake bidders that won the 2002 Winter Games.

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European 200-meter champion Doug Walker was in “total shock” after his suspension for a failed drug test.

Walker is barred from competition pending a hearing by UK Athletics. The governing body of British track and field said the 25-year-old Scot had the steroid Nandrolone in his system during an out-of-competition test in December.

He faces a two-year ban, which would eliminate him from the World Championships in August in Spain.

Jurisprudence

Patrick Valenzuela, a leading jockey at Southern California tracks from 1979-95 who rode Sunday Silence to victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness 10 years ago, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Pasadena on a robbery charge.

Accused of robbing a cab driver of $150 at gunpoint on Feb. 25 in Rosemead, Valenzuela faces one count of robbery with the allegation that he personally used a handgun in the crime.

Valenzuela, 36, is free on $40,000 bail and was scheduled to report back to Superior Court Dept. H on April 28 for a pretrial conference. A trial date of May 28 was set by judge Janice Croft.

If convicted, he faces a maximum of 16 years in prison--six for the robbery and 10 for the handgun-use allegation, Deputy District Atty. Leonard J. Torrealba said.

Former Kentucky football player Jason Watts pleaded guilty in Somerset, Ky., to reckless homicide in an alcohol-related truck crash that killed a teammate and another man.

Watts entered the plea during a 10-minute hearing in Pulaski Circuit Court. Judge Daniel Venters granted Watts’ request to go to prison immediately.

Venters scheduled sentencing for April 16. Pulaski Commonwealth’s Atty. Eddy Montgomery said he would ask that Watts serve consecutive terms of five years on each count for a total of 10 years.

The Nov. 15 crash on U.S. 27 north of Somerset injured Watts and killed teammate Arthur Steinmetz and Eastern Kentucky student Scott Brock. Tests showed Watts’ blood-alcohol level to be 1 1/2 times the legal limit.

Willie Fells, a two-year starter for Purdue at middle linebacker, has been indefinitely suspended by Coach Joe Tiller after his arrest Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind., on charges of battery, resisting law enforcement, disorderly conduct and two counts of criminal mischief.

Embezzlement charges against former Detroit Tiger pitcher Denny McLain and business partner Roger Smigiel were upheld by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Detroit.

McLain and Smigiel, former co-owners of Chesaning’s Peet Packing Co., appealed their 1996 convictions for stealing more than $2.5 million from the company’s pension fund and then laundering the money. They argued the jury instructions were improper, evidence was admitted in error and that they should have received separate trials, U.S. Atty. Saul A. Green said.

Tennis

Top-seeded Martina Hingis, who won the tournament two years ago, defeated Sylvia Plischke, 6-3, 7-5, in her first match at the Family Circle Cup in Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Also advancing were No. 2-seeded Monica Seles, No. 6 Patty Schnyder and No. 10 Conchita Martinez.

Seles looked sharp in her opening match, winning the final eight games to defeat Olga Barabanschiova, 6-3, 6-0.

Schnyder defeated Lisa Raymond, 6-4, 6-2, and Martinez, who won the tournament in 1994 and 1995, ousted Alexia Dechaume-Balleret, 6-3, 6-0.

Pro Football

The NFL’s finance committee talked for 90 minutes by telephone to discuss the latest changes made by New York banker Howard Milstein in financing his $800-million bid to purchase the Washington Redskins, apparently including a $125 million cash loan from his father.

Tight end Lovett Purnell was acquired by the Baltimore Ravens in a trade with the New England Patriots for a sixth-round draft pick in this month’s NFL draft. . . . The Green Bay Packers agreed to a three-year contract with fullback William Henderson, reportedly worth $3.6 million.

Miscellany

Notre Dame apparently will be the next school to opt out of a game with Hawaii.

The Fighting Irish are scheduled to play at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu on Nov. 24, 2001, but a school spokesman said it’s not worth the risk of playing the game given the new Bowl Championship Series rules.

Those rules factor strength of schedule into whether a school qualifies for the BCS. A team that earns a BCS bid sees a payday of a minimum $12.5 million.

“The implications of playing that game are different than they used to be,” Notre Dame spokesman John Heisler said.

Hawaii Athletic Director Hugh Yoshida said the Rainbows--whose 1991 and 1997 losses to Notre Dame were by a touchdown or less--won’t fight the Irish’s request.

The decision will cost Hawaii money--it earned an extra $225,000 in revenues from the last Notre Dame game.

Three men’s programs--gymnastics, swimming and wrestling--are being axed by New Mexico as a cost-cutting measure.

Gil Morgan, the two-time defending champion, withdrew from The Tradition at Scottsdale, Ariz., the Senior PGA Tour’s first major of the year, because of a lower back injury. . . . Greg Norman withdrew from the BellSouth Classic in Duluth, Ga., because of flu.

USC catcher Eric Munson, projected as the possible No. 1 pick in this year’s amateur draft, will be sidelined six to eight weeks because of a broken hand.

Munson fractured a bone in his right hand Saturday when he was hit by a foul tip in a game against Washington State.

The UC Irvine men’s volleyball team, ranked 13th, upset top-ranked Long Beach State, 15-11, 15-9, 15-6, at Irvine.

Three top male gymnasts from Romania disappeared from their hotel in Richmond, Va., and the team flew home without them, officials said.

Marian Malita, Viorel Popescu and Vasile Cioana have not been seen since Saturday and appear to have defected.

Chad Carvin, representing Mission Viejo, won the 400-meter freestyle in the National Swimming Championships at East Meadow, N.Y.

Carvin, the 1997 U.S. swimmer of the year, won in 3:52.58, marking yet another successful comeback. Since 1996, he has had to leave the sport twice because of serious health problems, first for a life-threatening heart condition that caused him to sit out the 1996 Olympic trials and then degenerative discs in late 1997.

Kansas City Wizard goalkeeper Tony Meola will be sidelined for six months after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, the Major League Soccer team announced.

The San Diego franchise in the International Basketball League, which will open its inaugural season in November, will be called the Stingrays.