Coles Resigns Sydney Post, Is Allowed to Keep IOC Seat

Phil Coles resigned from the Sydney 2000 Organizing Committee but retained his seat on the International Olympic Committee, IOC officials announced today in Seoul, South Korea.

The compromise deal was offered by the IOC executive board in a bid to close the five-month controversy swirling around the Australian IOC member.

Coles, who was censured in March for his role in the Salt Lake City scandal, had been under the threat of expulsion from the IOC for further alleged ethical misconduct.

The executive board announced that it was maintaining the “most severe warning” which Coles received in March for accepting lavish hospitality from Salt Lake City bid officials. The board said Coles would now receive a “reprimand” for serious negligence and proposed that he be ineligible to serve on any IOC commission or working group for two years.

The statement announced that Coles had resigned from the board of the Sydney organizing committee. Sydney organizers have repeatedly pushed for Coles to be ousted from the local panel.

The board said it found no “sanctionable offense” in the fact that Coles had written memos on IOC members. Those memos, prepared for the Sydney bid committee, were apparently passed on to Salt Lake bidders.

“On the other hand, by not taking all necessary precautions to avoid the disclosure of such notes, Mr. Coles was guilty of serious negligence,” an IOC statement said.

Tennis

Eight days before he defends his Wimbledon championship, Pete Sampras won his first title of 1999 by defeating Tim Henman, 6-7 (7-1), 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), in the Queen’s Club tournament at London.

Sampras, expected to reclaim his No. 1 ranking today, is honing his grass-court game in a bid for a sixth Wimbledon title in seven years.

“My year has not been that great, a little bit up and down,” he said. “It’s nice to be back on the grass.”

This was the second time Sampras has won the Queen’s Club title. He beat Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt in Saturday’s semifinal.

Earlier in the day, Henman needed just 11 minutes to finish a semifinal against Sargis Sargsian, 6-1, 6-3.

*

Nicholas Kiefer, who credits pole vaulter Sergei Bubka for improving his stamina and game, defeated Nicklas Kulti of Sweden, 6-3, 6-2, to win the Gerry Weber Open at Halle, Germany. In winning the $900,000 grass-court tuneup for Wimbledon, Kiefer, 21, won his third career title. Kiefer, seeded seventh, became the first German to win the event since Michael Stich in 1995.

*

Julie Halard-Decugis of France completed a semifinal match against Cara Black of Zimbabwe and then beat defending champion and top-seeded Nathalie Tauziat, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, to win the DFS Classic at Birmingham, England.

Leading her rain-delayed semifinal, 6-4, 1-0, Halard-Decugis squandered two match points against Black before advancing, 6-4, 6-4, to meet countrywoman Tauziat in the final two hours later.

*

Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic, worried that an injured ankle might prevent her from defending her title at Wimbledon, decided not to defend the Eastbourne championship that starts today.

Track and Field

Bruny Surin of Canada ran 9.92, the fastest 100 meters of the year, at the Nuremberg Track Festival at Nuremberg, Germany, after fellow Canadian Donovan Bailey failed to qualify for the final.

Bailey was making his first appearance since he ruptured an Achilles’ tendon warming up for a pickup basketball game last year. The world record holder at 9.84 was timed in 10.51 in a preliminary heat.

There were two other year’s bests at the meet, with Britain’s Jonathan Edwards leaping 57-2 1/4 in the triple jump and Germany’s Michael Stolle clearing 19-4 3/4 in the pole vault.

Miscellany

Joe Bugner, 49, won what he said was the final fight of his 32-year career when Levi Billups was disqualified for repeated low blows in the ninth round of a 10-round heavyweight bout at Gold Coast, Australia. Bugner won the British, European, Commonwealth, Australian and World Boxing Federation heavyweight titles during his career. His record is listed at 69-13-1.

An explosive thrown from the stands injured a goalkeeper during a third-division playoff game in Rome on the last day of the Italian soccer season. Marco Borghetto of Lumezzane dropped to the ground after the device landed nearby during the second half of a 2-1 loss to Pistoia. He was taken to a hospital and his condition was not known.