Sotomayor’s Drug Test Results Under Review

Track and field’s international federation is investigating why two parts of a drug test on high-jump champion Javier Sotomayor produced different results.

The International Association of Athletic Federations council reported Monday that the first part of the 1992 Olympic champion’s sample tested positive for the steroid nandrolone after a July 14 meet in Spain. But the second part showed the nandrolone level being 50% less.

“He cannot be declared positive,” IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said. “It is in limbo at the moment.”

In Havana, Sotomayor avoided direct comment on the test results.

“I cannot imagine living through that nightmare again,” Sotomayor told The Associated Press as he left his home. Visibly upset, he refused to comment further.

Reineri said Sotomayor had undergone 10 drug tests throughout the year and passed all of them, including one three weeks after the test in Spain.

The IAAF also set up a commission to determine if former Olympic 5,000-meter champion Dieter Baumann should have his doping ban reduced.

Baumann tested positive for nandrolone in October 1999 and his ban expires in January 2002.

A foundation gave out $23,350 in reward money for information that led to the arrest of eight people involved in a campus melee April 1 after Purdue lost in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game to Notre Dame. The 12 checks issued by the Purdue Research Foundation ranged from $100 to $5,000, the university said.

Hockey

Pavel Bure, the NHL’s leading goal scorer the last two seasons, was put on injured reserve by the Florida Panthers because of a concussion.

Bure was injured Nov. 19 against Toronto and has missed the Panthers’ last two games. He is also expected to miss Florida’s game at Colorado on Tuesday and at Minnesota on Thursday.

Buffalo defenseman Rhett Warrener will return to the lineup tonight after being out for a month because of a groin injury.... Goalie Miikka Kiprusoff was recalled by San Jose after a rehabilitation stint with Cleveland of the American Hockey League in which he won four consecutive starts.... Atlanta sent Patrik Stefan, the first player drafted by the Thrashers, to Chicago of the AHL.... Boston Bruin forward Mike Knuble will be out of the lineup for two to three weeks because of a broken vertebrae.

Soccer

Gheorghe Hagi resigned as coach of Romania’s team after a dispute with the nation’s soccer federation.

The former Romanian star insisted upon unspecified job security guarantees as he set out to rebuild the team, which failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986. Hagi was hired in June.

A French court convicted three men for invading a soccer field during a match between France and Algeria at a Paris stadium last month.

The court in the Paris suburb of Bobigny handed down five-month suspended prison sentences to Karim Bab and Arab Yamiaoui, and a three-month suspended sentence to Farouk Amerniss.

The three were banned from attending soccer matches for three years.

Former international star George Best, 55, was released from a clinic in Nicosia, Cyprus, after recovering from a viral infection.

World Cup veteran and Dallas Burn defender Lubos Kubik retired, ending a 14-year pro career that included stints in Italy, Germany and France in addition to his native Czech Republic.

The Professional Footballers’ Assn., the union representing soccer players in England, will get $254 million in television revenue over 10 years under an agreement with the Premier and Football leagues, the Press Assn. said.

Miscellany

Kevin Harvick, thrust into the late Dale Earnhardt’s ride after the seven-time Winston Cup champion was killed in the season-opening Daytona 500, was selected NASCAR rookie of the year, beating out Kurt Busch.

Playing in the event for the first time since 1997, Tiger Woods’ appearance in the Skins Game spurred a 96% boost in ABC television ratings Saturday and a 62% jump Sunday compared to last year’s numbers.

Cal Poly Pomona’s women’s basketball team will be without center Aprile Powell for at least four weeks because of a torn lateral meniscus in her right knee. She will have surgery today.