IAAF to Launch Legal Challenge Over Young

Track and field’s world governing body expects today to launch a formal legal challenge to the move by a USA Track & Field panel that cleared sprinter Jerome Young to compete in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a source familiar with the matter said.

The International Assn. of Athletics Federations had signaled in late January that it expected to take the move. Now the paperwork is complete.

Young tested positive in June 1999 for the banned steroid nandrolone. Just days before the 2000 Olympic Trials, a USATF appeal panel cleared him to compete; that appeal, and the original USATF hearing on the matter, were conducted in secret. Young has said he never committed a doping offense.

At the Sydney Games, Young and five other Americans, including Michael Johnson, won gold medals in the 1,600-meter relay. Those medals are at stake.

The time frame for a decision -- and, in a twist of legal protocol, even the forum itself -- remains unclear. The case may head for the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport. Or, under rules that governed certain IAAF-related disputes until 2001, it may go to an IAAF arbitration panel.

Nick Davies, the IAAF’s spokesman, declined to comment Wednesday.

Alan Abrahamson

*

*

Bob Wieland, a veteran who lost his legs fighting in Vietnam, was presented with the Los Angeles Marathon’s Patsy Choco Award in a luncheon at Disney Hall.

Wieland, 58, completed last year’s L.A. Marathon in a little more than seven days while walking the 26-mile 385-yard distance on his hands. Patsy Choco walked the 1993 L.A. Marathon while battling cancer. She died in 1994.

*

Football

Detroit Lion Coach Steve Mariucci plans to talk with the Washington Redskins today at the NFL combine at Indianapolis about acquiring star cornerback Champ Bailey.

Last week, the Redskins gave Bailey permission to pursue a trade.

If the Redskins don’t re-sign Bailey or trade him by Feb. 24, they probably would designate him as a franchise player and be forced to tender him a one-year, $6.8-million offer.

Linebacker Brant Boyer, an unrestricted free agent, agreed to a four-year contract extension with the Cleveland Browns.

Boyer, 32, started six games last season and matched a career high with 80 tackles.

Mississippi State running back Nick Turner was dismissed from the team for what new Coach Sylvester Croom called a failure to meet “the expectation level” he has for players.

Turner, 19, had been put on three years’ probation Feb. 7 for possession of counterfeit bills in October 2002.

Last season, he led the team and ranked second in the Southeastern Conference in all-purpose yardage with 138.7 per game.

The Black Coaches Assn. has established the Fritz Pollard Award in honor of the first black to play in a Rose Bowl and coach in the NFL.

The award will be given each year to a college or professional coach. Brown, which Pollard attended, will be the co-sponsor.

Pollard, who died at 92 in 1986, played for Brown in the 1916 Rose Bowl. He became a player-coach with the Akron Pros of the American Professional Football Assn. in 1921.

The league became the NFL the next year.

*

Jurisprudence

A federal judge agreed with the University of Miami, sending back to state court its lawsuit against the Big East Conference and four member schools.

Miami sued the conference and Connecticut, West Virginia, Rutgers and Pittsburgh in October, contending it suffered “substantial monetary damages” by remaining in the league.

That suit was filed after the Big East sued Miami in Connecticut, saying the school was involved in a conspiracy with the Atlantic Coast Conference to weaken the Big East -- costing member schools millions of dollars.

The Big East moved Miami’s lawsuit from Florida Circuit Court to federal court in November, but Miami wanted it heard in state court. U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages decided Tuesday in favor of Miami.

Miami and fellow Big East member Virginia Tech are leaving the league to join the ACC after the current academic year. Boston College also is leaving the Big East for the ACC, but not until at least 2005.

*

Tennis

Top-seeded Andy Roddick defeated Todd Martin, 7-6 (2), 1-6, 7-5, in the first round of the Kroger St. Jude tournament at Memphis, Tenn.

Second-seeded Mardy Fish struggled early before beating Olivier Mutis of France, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Sixth-seeded James Blake defeated Wesley Moodie, 7-6 (5), 6-1, in the second round of the Kroger St. Jude tournament at Memphis, Tenn.

In the women’s tournament, defending champion Lisa Raymond defeated qualifier Galina Voskoboeva, 6-2, 6-3.

Kim Clijsters beat qualifier Arantxa Parra, 6-3, 6-2, to reach the quarterfinals of the Diamond Games tournament at Antwerp, Belgium.

Third-seeded Elena Dementieva withdrew because of a shoulder injury.

*

Miscellany

Defensive specialist Damen Wheeler was put on the injured reserve list by the Avengers and is expected to be sidelined at least two weeks because of a pulled hamstring.

All-Star guard Becky Hammon re-signed with the New York Liberty of the WNBA, agreeing to a multiyear contract.

Hammon played 11 games last season before suffering a season-ending knee injury.

Jens Arne Svartedal and Marit Bjorgen won the Royal Palace Sprint cross-country ski races at Stockholm, giving Norway a sweep in the world’s only World Cup meet held downtown in a capital city.

The ABA said that the first-place Long Beach Jam will play host to the league championship game at 7:30 p.m. on March 9.

The last regular-season game for the Jam (19-7) is March 2.