Unser Jr. Injured in ATV Accident

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr. was hospitalized in serious condition Monday after being injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident.

He was riding the ATV on Sunday near his home in rural Chama, N.M., when he went over an embankment and broke his pelvis, his sister, Mary Unser Tanner, told Associated Press. She said her brother called for help for about an hour before being found by a hunter.

Tanner said Unser, 41, had “several fractures” of the pelvic area and was being treated at the University of New Mexico hospital.

“He’s in a lot of pain, but he’s going to be OK,” she said.

Unser made a comeback in the Indy Racing League this year after admitting to an alcohol problem in 2002. He finished sixth in points this season driving with Kelley Racing.

Track and Field

Track and field’s governing body is considering retesting drug samples from the World Championships to search for the designer steroid at the heart of a U.S. doping scandal.

The International Assn. of Athletics Federations said it may reopen about 400 urine samples taken during the Aug. 23-31 championships in France.

UCLA’s doping control laboratory developed a test for the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) after an unidentified coach turned in a used syringe containing the substance.

Under the IAAF’s agreement with French authorities, all samples taken in France must be tested there, IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said.

“They don’t know how to test for THG in France,” he said. “Los Angeles is the only one that can do it at the moment. But we might be in a position to test them in Los Angeles or Los Angeles could share the knowledge with the French lab.”

Colleges

The University of Miami filed suit against the Big East Conference and four of its member schools, claiming that it suffered “substantial monetary damages” by remaining in the league.

The four other league members named are Connecticut, West Virginia, Rutgers and Pittsburgh -- schools that are now suing Miami, alleging that it was involved in a conspiracy with the Atlantic Coast Conference to weaken the Big East.

Six more Nevada Las Vegas athletes, two of them starters on the men’s basketball team, will be suspended from games for using a personal identification number to make phone calls without permission, school officials said.

Center J.K. Edwards will sit out six games and forward James Peters will sit out three. The other athletes were not identified.

The Western Athletic Conference has identified eight schools as possible replacements after losing three -- Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa -- to Conference USA.

New Mexico State, North Texas, Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana Monroe, Arkansas State, Utah State, Idaho and Middle Tennessee State -- all members of the 15-team Sun Belt Conference -- are under consideration, Commissioner Karl Benson said.

Miscellany

Scotland beat the United States, 39-15, in a first-round match at the Rugby World Cup in Brisbane, Australia.

The result extended the U.S. team’s losing streak in the World Cup to 10 games, a tournament record. The U.S. next plays Japan on Monday.

Top-ranked Juan Carlos Ferrero withdrew from the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at Basel, citing a sore foot and groin.

Figure skater Tim Goebel, the bronze medalist at the Salt Lake City Olympics, withdrew from this weekend’s Skate America competition in Reading, Pa., because of problems with the fit of his boots and blades.

Lisa Leslie of the Sparks and world-record-holding swimmer Natalie Coughlin were honored as the 2003 Sportswomen of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation.