Injured Foot Sidelines Seles

Third-seeded Monica Seles has pulled out of this week’s tennis tournament at Linz, Austria, because of a foot injury, organizers said Monday.

Seles was forced to retire from her semifinal in the Princess Cup against Julie Halard-Decugis eight days ago because of the injury and told organizers she had not recovered.

Fellow Americans Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams, playing in her first tournament since winning the Olympic gold medal, are seeded first and second.

Golf

Tiger Woods extended his stay atop the world rankings to 61 weeks, one week short of tying Greg Norman’s third-longest unbroken run at No. 1.

Woods maintained a lead of 17.59 points over South Africa’s Ernie Els.

Norman holds the record of 96 weeks as world No. 1 from June 1995 to April 1997. Nick Faldo led the rankings for 81 weeks from July 1992 to January 1994, and Norman was also on top for 62 weeks from September 1986 to November 1987.

Miscellany

Michelle Kwan earned the 43rd perfect 6.0 of her career in winning the Masters of Figure Skating women’s singles title at Boise, Idaho. Kwan earned her perfect score in the free skate. Irina Slutskaya of Russia was second and Yuka Sato of Japan was third.

Five-time U.S. men’s champion Todd Eldredge completed his first quadruple jump in competition to win the men’s title.

USA Swimming named triple gold-medalist Lenny Krayzelburg as its swimmer of the year. Stanford’s Richard Quick, coach of the U.S. women’s team in Sydney, was named coach of the year, and Misty Hyman, who upset Australia’s Susie O’Neill in the Olympic 200-meter butterfly, was honored for performance of the year.

Swimmer Jenny Thompson, the most decorated U.S. woman athlete in Olympic history, was chosen sportswoman of the year by the Women’s Sports Foundation. She won three gold medals and a bronze in Sydney.

The foundation also honored Venus and Serena Williams as sportswomen of the year, a team honor, and Martina Navratilova with the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award. Synchronized swimming Coach Chris Carver, Australian track great Marjorie Jackson-Nelson and synchronized swimmer Tracie Ruiz-Conforto were inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Sprinter Chandra Cheeseborough, who won two gold medals and a silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, leads a quartet of Olympians elected to the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame. Also elected were former runner and coach Bill Dellinger, seven-time U.S. long jump champion Arnie Robinson and 19-time national shotput champion Maren Seidler.

Benoit Joachim, Luxembourg’s top cyclist and a teammate of Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, could face a six-month ban and $1,130 fine after testing positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.

The 41st L.A. Invitational indoor track and field meet will be held Jan. 20 at the Sports Arena, promoter Al Franken said. He also said the board track, which has come under criticism as outdated in recent years, has been refurbished.