U.S. Wins 16 Medals

The Americans were the top medal winners at the World Indoor Championship in Paris, finishing with 16 medals, including six golds, three silvers and seven bronzes.

Mary Slaney finished second to 44-year-old Yekaterina Podkopayeva of Russia in the women’s 1,500-meter run.

The final day of the championships also produced a a women’s world record-tying pole vault of 14 feet, 5 inches by Stacy Dragila of the U.S.

The U.S. team also got victories from Olympic gold medalist Charles Austin in the high jump at a 1997 world-leading 7-8-1/2, Jearl Miles-Clark in the women’s 400 in a world-leading 50.96, and its men’s 1,600 relay team in a world-leading 3:04.93.

The head of the IAAF drug-control demanded that the Greek federation, whose sprinters surprisingly won two gold medals at the World Indoor Championship, punish a coach who barred his leading athletes from being tested.

Arne Ljungqvist said his commission backed the report of independent controller Klaus Wengoborski, who claimed he was physically restrained by a coach from testing several Greek athletes at an indoor meet in Dortmund, Germany, last month.

Spokane’s Kim Jones placed third in the women’s 15K road race with a time of 50 minutes, 36 seconds at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in Jacksonville, Fla.

Olympic bronze medalist Lynn Jennings won the race in 50:13.