Armstrong’s Team Willing to Release Samples

Lance Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service team is willing to release its blood samples to French authorities investigating possible drug use during the Tour de France.

“We have absolutely nothing to hide,” U.S. Postal spokesman Dan Osipow said Friday on the team’s Web site.

Armstrong came back from testicular cancer to win the 1999 and 2000 Tour de France. He has repeatedly denied taking illegal substances, and U.S. Postal Service officials have said the team respects anti-drug rules.

The U.S. Postal comment came in response to a request by a French judge who was having trouble getting the samples from cycling’s government body (UCI) in Switzerland, legal and judicial sources told the Associated Press.

Auto Racing

Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon continued their recent resurgence by taking the top two spots in qualifying for the Winston Cup Cracker Barrel 500 at Hampton, Ga.

Jarrett, in a new Ford, won his second pole in as many weeks by running a lap of 192.748 mph around Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The lap was strong enough to hold off Gordon, last week’s winner in Las Vegas, whose speed of 192.413 mph put his Chevrolet second in the 43-car field for Sunday’s race.

Gil de Ferran, the reigning CART series champion, led 27 other drivers with a lap of 96.390 mph on the 2.1-mile, 12-turn road course at the inaugural Telmex Tecate Grand Prix at Monterrey, Mexico.

Tommi Makinen of Finland took a 17-second lead after the first leg of at the Portuguese Rally at Lousada. The leader’s Mitsubishi Lancer was timed in 1 hour 27 minutes 34.8 seconds for the 102-mile leg.

Track and Field

Terrence Trammell and Anjanette Kirkland gave the United States a sweep of the men’s and women’s 60-meter hurdles at the World Indoor Championships at Lisbon, winning in times of 7.51 and 7.85 seconds, respectively.

The Americans added another first place when John Godina led a 1-2 U.S. finish in the men’s shotput with a throw of 68 feet 3 3/4 inches. Adam Nelson (67-11 3/4) was second.

However, Stacy Dragila, winner of the first women’s pole vault competition at the world indoors, the world outdoors and the Olympics, failed to medal. The highly favored world indoor and outdoor record-holder finished an uncharacteristic fourth.

The international governing body of track and field welcomed the two-year suspension given to shotputter C.J. Hunter by the U.S. federation and considers the matter finished.

UCLA shotputter Christina Tolson made a throw of 55 feet 9 3/4 inches on her third attempt and helped the defending champion Bruins get off to a fast start in the NCAA Indoor track championships at Fayetteville, Ark. Between Tolson and UCLA freshman Jessica Cosby’s fifth-place finish, the Bruins earned 14 points.

Long Beach Wilson High set a girls’ national high school in the sprint medley relay with a time of 3:53.17 at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York. Angel Tate, Deanna Gooden, Lashinda Demus and Ashley Freeman combined to break the previous mark of 3:56.67, set by William Penn High of Philadelphia in 1997.

Miscellany

Harel Levy, a 22-year-old Israeli, dominated sixth-seeded Tim Henman of Great Britain from the start for a 6-2, 6-4 quarterfinal victory in the Frankin Templeton Classic at Scottsdale, Ariz.

Levy advances to the semifinals against the highest remaining seeded player, No. 3 Magnus Norman of Sweden, who survived a scare from 19-year-old American Mardy Fish, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Defending champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia disposed of Marcelo Rios of Chile, 7-5, 6-2, and will face Francisco Clavet of Spain, a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 winner over Nicolas Massu of Chile.

Wayne Arthurs of Australia defeated top-seeded countryman Patrick Rafter, 6-1, 7-6 (0) in the quarterfinals of the Citrix Tennis Championships at Delray Beach, Fla. Jan-Michael Gambill won an all-American matchup against Chris Woodruff, 5-7, 7-6 (9), 6-4. Xavier Malisse of Belgium reached his second semifinal in as many weeks after upsetting eighth-seeded Fabrice Santoro of France, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), and will face Peter Wessels, a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) winner over Edwin Kepes.

Regine Cavagnoud of France won the women’s World Cup super-G title at Are, Sweden, on a foggy day by finishing third in a race won by Corinne Rye Bellet of Switzerland. Rey Bellet was timed in 1 minute 9.52 seconds. Cavagnoud was .75 of a second behind. Because of the fog, Hermann Maier of Austria was forced to wait one more day before getting another chance to tie Ingemar Stenmark’s World Cup record of 13 victories set in 1979.

Olympic figure skating gold medalist and ABC commentator Dick Button, who suffered a head injury Dec. 31, was released from the Burke Rehabilitation Center in White Plains, N.Y., and will continue his recovery at home.

Five unanswered goals lifted the visiting Ice Dogs to a 5-2 West Coast Hockey League victory over the Phoenix Mustangs.

Harry Boykoff of Bel-Air, an All-American basketball player at St. John’s in the 1940s, has died of lung cancer at 78. After college, Boykoff played in the National Basketball League, forerunner of the NBA, and briefly with the Boston Celtics.