Olympics to Use Blood Testing

Blood testing will be introduced at next year’s Sydney Olympics, either to improve detection of performance-enhancing drugs if the test is determined to be reliable, or for research, the International Olympic Committee announced Friday in Seville, Spain.

Calls for blood testing at the Olympics have mounted in the wake of high-profile drug scandals. Several performance-enhancing drugs cannot be detected in standard urine tests. Normally, all medalists and some athletes chosen at random are tested during the Olympics.

The IOC also approved the allocation of $2 million for further anti-doping research.

Tennis

Pete Sampras’ 24-match winning streak ended abruptly when he retired during a quarterfinal match at the RCA Championships at Indianapolis because of a hip injury. Sampras, the world’s top-ranked player, hurt himself on an overhead shot in the second set of his match with fellow American Vincent Spadea.

Sampras said he still hopes to play in the U.S. Open starting later this month.

Spadea will play Sebastien Grosjean of France in today’s semifinals. Grosjean upset third-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, 6-4, 6-3. Fourth-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain was eliminated, 6-1, 6-2, by 11th-seeded Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador.

Andre Agassi and Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia stayed on course to meet in the final of the Legg Mason Classic at Washington.

Top-seeded Kafelnikov was stretched by little-known Czech Tomas Zib before advancing with a 6-1, 6-7 (7-9), 7-5 quarterfinal victory. Agassi, seeded second, defeated Fabrice Santoro of France, 6-4, 7-5, and now faces fourth-seeded Todd Martin, who beat fellow American Paul Goldstein, 6-4, 7-5.

Rain forced all of Friday’s scheduled quarterfinal matches at the $1.05-million du Maurier Open in Toronto to be postponed until today. Tournament organizers said the semifinals would also be played today as scheduled. . . . Anna Kournikova of Russia, ranked 13th in the world, withdrew from the U.S. Open because of a minor stress fracture in her right foot.

Motor Racing

Ernie Irvan had only a bruised lung and a mild head injury after crashing during practice for Sunday’s Winston Cup Pepsi 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

The crash was five years to the day after Irvan’s near-fatal wreck on the same track in Brooklyn, Mich., and that fact in part convinced him to withdraw from the race, according to his team general manager Jay Frye. Irvan will be replaced by Dick Trickle.

Ward Burton won his first pole of the season, setting a speedway record with a qualifying lap of 188.843 mph.

Warren Johnson set pro stock track records of 6.955 seconds at 197.59 mph in the first round of qualifying at the 18th annual Colonels Truck Accessories NHRA Nationals at Brainerd, Minn.

Hockey

All-star defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, who had been considering a return to Sweden, agreed to a three-year, $22-million contract with the Detroit Red Wings. . . . The Philadelphia Flyers signed center Simon Gagne, their 1998 first-round draft pick, to a three-year contract believed to be worth about $975,000. . . . Jim Campbell, a forward with the St. Louis Blues, was arrested Thursday night for driving under the influence in a St. Louis suburb.

Miscellany

Sixteen years after a rape conviction ended his promising young career, Tony Ayala Jr. returned to the ring to stop an outclassed Manuel Esparaza in the third round of their middleweight fight at San Antonio.

NBA referee Bruce Alexander has received two years’ probation and a $5,000 fine for failing to pay taxes on the money he saved by “downgrading” from first class on his league travel.

Rufus Simmons, the official who coordinated sexual violence awareness training for University of Minnesota athletes, twice was cited for soliciting prostitution, police records show. Simmons was most recently arrested in June. His first offense was in 1991.

Simmons, a university employee for 27 years, retired July 31 from his job as associate men’s athletic director.

Vivian Fuller, fired as Tennessee State’s athletic director last January, is suing the school, claiming she was let go because she tried to improve women’s sports. Fuller, who was the only black woman athletic director at a Division I school with a football program, also said in the suit filed Thursday that she was treated less favorably than her male colleagues, fired without notice and defamed by school officials.

Misty May, the former Long Beach State volleyball player who recently was honored as the nation’s top female college athlete, has left the U.S. national team to train on the beach, USA Volleyball announced.

The departure of May, a setter who led Long Beach State to the NCAA title and was the two-time national player of the year, is a blow to the U.S. team coached by Mick Haley, who will become the USC women’s volleyball coach after the 2000 Olympics.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong, this year’s Tour de France winner, signed a contract extension with his team, U.S. Postal Service, that will pay him $2 million in 2000, four times his 1999 base salary.