USOC to Drug Test Without Warning

The stiffest anti-drug program in international sports, including knock-on-the-door testing, will be in operation within 30 days for American athletes.

Random no-notice, out-of-competition tests will be the final element of a strict anti-doping package adopted by the U.S. Olympic Committee a year ago.

“Athletes are signing the final documents” clearing the way for the new program, USOC Executive Director Dick Schultz said Friday at the organization’s meetings in Orlando, Fla. “We should start the [no-notice] tests within 30 days. Our goal is to have the best drug-testing program in the world.”

Under previous rules, most testing of U.S. athletes was done after 48 hours’ advance warning, with samples collected during competition. Critics have charged that process left loopholes.

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In a major concession, Marc Hodler, the chairman of the International Ski Federation, said Japanese authorities will be left to work out where to start the men’s downhill race in the upcoming Nagano Olympics.

The unexpected announcement suggested an end to a long dispute between international ski officials and the Nagano organizers over the downhill, and appeared to clear the final organizational hurdle before the games begin in February.

Tennis

Top-ranked Pete Sampras played despite a sore shoulder and beat Austria’s Thomas Muster, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of the Paris Open, then had precautionary X-rays.

Sampras won he first set in 20 minutes, then called to the trainer after the fifth game of the second set to have his upper right arm and shoulder massaged.

Sampras is scheduled to play Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov today in the semifinals.

Venus Williams lost her quarterfinal match to top-seeded Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic, 7-5, 6-4, in the Kremlin Cup at Moscow.

Novotna will play fourth-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain in the semifinals. Martinez defeated Sandrine Testud of France, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4. Also reaching the semifinals were Ai Sugiyama and Dominique Van Roost. Sugiyama ousted second-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 6-1, 7-6 (7-1), and Van Roost beat third-seeded Irina Spirlea, 6-2, 6-4.

Top-seeded Francisco Clavet of Spain saved five set points in the first-set tiebreaker before advancing to the semifinals of the Colombian Open at Bogota.

Clavet won, 7-6 (14-12), 2-3, when fellow Spaniard Emilio Alvarez, suffering from flu-like symptoms, became disoriented after the fifth game of the second set and had to quit.

Figure Skating

Elvis Stojko won the short program at the Nations Cup at Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

The Canadian champion, long acknowledged as a technical master, was given two 5.9s for artistry.

Igor Pashkevitch of Azerbaijan and Dmitry Dmitrenko of Ukraine hit triple-triple combinations, finishing second and third, respectively.

In the women’s competition, Germany’s Tanja Szewczenko, back on the ice after a long illness, conquered nerves and a set of jumps to win the short program. The 1995 German national champion hadn’t competed since the 1996 world championships.

In a brilliant performance that garnered seven perfect scores of 10, Kurt Browning lifted Team Canada to victory in the Northwestern Mutual Life World Team Figure Skating Championship at Milwaukee.

Jurisprudence

San Diego Charger defensive tackle Shawn Lee filed claims against the city and county of San Diego, one week after Lee and his girlfriend, Cheryl Freeman, were handcuffed and detained in what police have admitted was a case of mistaken identity.

A day after the San Francisco Giants announced they were cutting their ties to former scout Luis Rosa, a group of major leaguers vowed to help Rosa fight sex-abuse charges.

Texas Ranger outfielder Juan Gonzalez traveled to San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic to visit Rosa in jail. The former scout faces charges that he coerced more than a dozen young Dominican players to have sex with him.

Miscellany

Evelyn Ashford, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and former 100-meter world-record holder, and Renaldo Nehemiah, the first to break 13 seconds for the 110-meter hurdles, have been elected to the Track and Field Hall of Fame.

Joining them in the Hall’s class of 1997 are 1964 Olympic 200-meter champion Henry Carr and three-time Olympic race walker Henry Laskau.

Winston Cup driver Bobby Hamilton, coming off a victory at Rockingham, N.C., last weekend, kept on going at Phoenix International Raceway, winning the pole for Sunday’s Dura-Lube 500 with a record-setting lap of 131.579 mph in Richard Petty’s Pontiac.

Three teenagers--Troy Dumais of Ventura, Erica Sorgi of Mission Viejo and Michelle Davison of Columbia, S.C., qualified for the three-meter springboard on the U.S. team for the world diving championships, along with P.J. Bogert, 23, of Mesa, Ariz.

Former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith met with student activists who oppose the school’s $7.1-million contract with Nike, then spoke in support of the company.

Smith said he was trying to get more information about alleged sweatshop working conditions at the company’s overseas factories.

Chile’s professional soccer players ended a two-day strike, paving the way for the national team to resume training for a World Cup qualifier Nov. 16 against Bolivia. . . . Visiting Qatar beat a lackluster Chinese team, 3-2, in a World Cup qualifier, all but ending China’s hopes of qualifying for next year’s tournament in France.