OLYMPIC NOTES

Nigerian Olympic officials have told a hurdler on the team that she must arrange--and apparently pay for--the return of the body of her fiance, who was killed by a car in Sydney last week.

Glory Alozie, considered one of Nigeria’s best medal chances, flew in on Friday night, a day after 400-meter runner Hyginus Anugo was fatally injured.

Nigerian Olympic officials said in a statement Sunday that Anugo, a 22-year-old relay squad reserve, was not the team’s responsibility because he had stayed in Sydney on his own.

The statement, signed by Nigerian Olympic official Fidelis Kaigama, expressed “sadness” over the death but failed to make any form of commitment to returning his body to Nigeria or helping his family.

“We don’t have anything to do with him because he was one of those asked to go home who chose to stay back,” an unidentified Nigerian official told Australian Associated Press on Sunday.

Anugo, who was in Sydney at the request of his fiance, was knocked down and killed instantly by a car while trying to run across a street on Thursday.

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The Olympic flame survived a hijack attempt in which the torch was nearly thrown in a harbor.

Police said a spectator lunged and grabbed the torch from former world surfing champion Tom Carroll in Kiama, south of Sydney, as the relay was making its way up the New South Wales south coast.

A police spokesman said the man tried to throw the torch in Kiama harbor, but was wrestled to the ground by Carroll and torch security staff. Police took the man into custody.

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Still trying to show the Jamaican federation that she’s fit enough for a sixth Olympics, an angry Merlene Ottey blazed down a track in Gold Coast, Australia, on Sunday. The 40-year-old Ottey, whose scheduled two-year ban for steroid use was reduced to one year this season, won the women’s 100 meters in a wind-aided 10.91 seconds at the Gold Coast Meet--a tuneup for the Sydney Games.

“This year my goal has been to be in my sixth Olympics,” Ottey said. “It’s been quite a fight. I have to wait to see if Jamaica will let me in the 100.”

Ottey finished fourth in the Jamaican trials, only 0.02 of a second behind the winner, and the federation told her she would be a member of the 400-meter relay team.

That wasn’t good enough for Ottey, winner of seven Olympics medals. If she doesn’t run in the 100, Ottey said, “I think I will go on vacation.”

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Jon Cotton hit a grand slam and three pitchers combined on a two-hitter as the U.S. baseball team defeated South Africa, 17-1, in an Olympic tuneup at Gold Coast, Australia.