IOC Disciplines Austrian Skiers

More than three months after the Olympics ended, the IOC disqualified a pair of Austrian cross-country skiers and banned two team officials from the next two Winter Games in a blood-doping case from Salt Lake City.

The International Olympic Committee executive board announced the doping sanctions Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after a three-month investigation, rejecting the Austrians’ claim that the blood treatments were merely for therapeutic reasons.

Marc Mayer and Achim Walcher, who both finished far out of medal contention, were each disqualified from their events and had their results removed from the records.

Mayer finished 25th in the 50-kilometer race and 55th in the 10K pursuit, and Walcher was 38th in the 10K pursuit and 45th in the 30K.

Walter Mayer, the Nordic team coach and the skier’s father who performed the transfusions, and Volker Mueller, the German chiropractor who prescribed the blood treatments, were banned from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and the games in 2010.

It’s the first time the IOC has banned an athlete or team official for more than one future Olympics.

College Sports

Jennie Finch and Jackie Coburn hit home runs in the 11th inning as Arizona advanced to the NCAA softball championship game with a 6-2 victory over Florida State at Oklahoma City.

The Wildcats (55-11) will play today against California (55-19), which advanced to the title game for the first time by defeating Arizona State, 3-0, earlier in the day. Arizona is going for its seventh national title, and second in a row.

Finch, who threw 196 pitches and struck out 17 for the victory, hit her 16th homer over the left-field fence with two outs to give Arizona a 3-2 lead. After a walk and a hit batsman, Coburn hit a three-run shot.

In the first game, Jocelyn Forest threw a one-hitter for California. Forest gave up only a second-inning single to Phelan Wright and retired the last 18.

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Defending champion Matais Boeker of Georgia and fourth-seeded Jesse Witten of Kentucky defeated players from Stanford to advance to the NCAA tennis final at College Station, Texas.

The top-seeded Boeker, a junior from Argentina, beat David Martin, 6-4, 6-4, and Witten, a freshman from Naples, Fla., edged Ryan Haviland, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.

Martin and Scott Lipsky advanced to the doubles final, defeating Duke’s Phillip King and Michael Yani, 7-6 (6), 6-3. The second-seeded Stanford duo will face Auburn’s Andrew Colombo and Mark Kovacs, 6-4, 6-4 winners over Illinois’ fourth-seeded Michael Calkins and Amer Delic.

Soccer

Ronnie Ekelund scored on a penalty kick in the second half to lift the San Jose Earthquakes (5-3-2) to a 1-1 tie with the Chicago Fire (4-3-2) in front of 13,521 at Naperville, Ill., in a Major League Soccer game. Chicago’s Kelly Gray opened the scoring in the ninth minute with a low shot past goalkeeper Joe Cannon.

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Katia scored twice as the San Jose CyberRays (3-3-1) overcame their penchant for folding late in games with a 2-0 victory over the Washington Freedom (2-4-1) in front of 7,706 at San Jose in a Women’s United Soccer Assn. game

Cycling

Three-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong won the Midi Libre, finishing fourth in the 107-mile final stage at L’Esperou, France. Armstrong had an overall time of 19 hours 22 minutes 36 seconds in the five-stage race.... American Tyler Hamilton beat Sergei Honchar by 31 seconds in an 18-mile time trial and moved into third place at the Giro d’Italia at Numana, Italy. Jens Heppner retained the pink jersey of overall leader for the ninth consecutive day.