High Jumper Sotomayor Cleared to Compete at Sydney

Cuban high jump champion Javier Sotomayor was cleared Wednesday to compete in the Olympics, track and field’s ruling body cutting his suspension for cocaine use in half.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation cited “exceptional circumstances” for the move, pointing to his previously clean drug record and humanitarian work.

The IAAF, during a special meeting at its Monaco headquarters to handle pending drug cases, also opened the door for former Olympic 5,000-meter champion Dieter Baumann to possibly compete at Sydney.

It sent Baumann’s case to arbitration and said he was “free to compete” until an arbitration hearing, which could be held in early September. The Sydney Games start Sept. 15.

Sotomayor, a two-time world champion and 1992 Olympic gold medalist, is the only jumper to have cleared eight feet. He was stripped of his gold medal at last year’s Pan American Games after testing positive for cocaine.

“Exceptional circumstances take into account the career of Sotomayor, the fact that during 15 years he underwent 300 doping tests, all negative,” IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said.

“There were also his acts as a member of the IAAF athletic commission, many humanitarian considerations and the fact this is his last Olympics.”

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Thieves have undercut the medal hopes of the U.S. bobsled team. Eleven sets of experimental runners worth almost $45,000 were stolen at Salt Lake City, and it is unlikely they can be replaced before the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

In bobsled, success can hinge on the secret recipes for the alloy mixtures used to make the runners.

“I’m not going to say we aren’t going to win races, but it is definitely going to be more difficult,” said Matt Roy, executive director of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.

Tennis

Top-seeded Pete Sampras ousted Karim Alami of Morocco, 7-6 (3), 6-2, in the second round of the $2.95-million Tennis Masters Series-Canada at Toronto.

Only two of the top five seeded players remain. Brazil’s Gustavo Kuerten, seeded fourth, was the latest to go, losing to Canadian Sebastien Lareau, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Other seeded players losing were No. 7 Lleyton Hewitt, beaten by Sebastien Grosjean, 6-3, 7-6 (5), and No. 11 Nicolas Kiefer, who lost to Jiri Novak, 6-2, 7-5.

After his match, Sampras said he would not play in the Olympics.

“[This year] was never a consideration,” Sampras said. “If I’m going to go to the Olympics, it might be when I’m done playing. But not right now.”

Jeff Tarango took Sampras’ spot in the lineup for Sydney, which also includes defending gold medalist Andre Agassi, Michael Chang and Todd Martin. Alex O’Brien and Jared Palmer will play doubles.

Miscellany

The youngest son of former NBA star Julius Erving died of accidental drowning when he drove his car into a retention pond at Sanford, Fla., the Seminole County sheriff, Don Eslinger, ruled.

Trace amounts of cocaine were found in Cory Erving’s body, indicating he had ingested the drug within three days of the accident, but they were at insufficient levels to affect his driving or ability to escape from the car, the report said.

The report ends the investigation into the younger Erving’s mysterious disappearance more than two months ago.

The International Cycling Union said that champion Lance Armstrong and all other competitors in last month’s Tour de France passed their drug tests.

Forward Alexsey Morozov signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins for one year at $660,000, the minimum the club could pay him while retaining his rights as a restricted free agent. . . . The Washington Capitals signed defenseman Rob Zettler to a one-year contract. . . . The Boston Bruins re-signed six restricted free agents. Forwards Shawn Bates, Andre Savage, Mikko Eloranta, Cameron Mann and Eric Nickulas and defenseman Elias Abrahamsson all signed one-year deals.

A fifth Oregon State football player turned himself in to police in the beating of a student. Linebacker Noah Happe was charged with third-degree assault.

The players are accused of beating 21-year-old Victor Becerra at a Corvallis house party on July 22.

Willete White, a former associate head coach at UCLA, was hired as the head women’s basketball coach at Northeastern.