Landis camp offers dehydration as excuse
Dehydration is the latest possible reason offered for Tour de France winner Floyd Landis’ elevated testosterone levels.
“Maybe a combination of dehydration, maximum effort,” Jose Maria Buxeda, the cyclist’s lawyer, said Thursday after testing began in Paris on his backup sample.
That theory was rejected by one of the world’s top anti-doping officials.
“In 25 years of experience of testing … such a huge increase in the level of testosterone cannot be accepted to come from any natural factors,” said Christiane Ayotte, director of Montreal’s anti-doping laboratory.
•The U.S. Olympic Committee banned Justin Gatlin’s track coach, Trevor Graham, from its training facilities, making him the first target in a newly amplified effort to quash doping in sports.
Basketball
Blazers sale stalled
Portland Arena Management, which runs the Rose Garden Arena, announced that Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen has pulled out of negotiations to sell the team.
•Nate DuChesne, a University of Montana player from 1986-1989 and a teammate of head coach Wayne Tinkle, has been hired as a Grizzly assistant coach.
College football
Stoops defends actions
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said that the school acted quickly when it found out that starting quarterback Rhett Bomar and offensive lineman J.D. Quinn broke NCAA rules through their employment at a car dealership. The players were dismissed from the team on Wednesday.
Stoops said he had not been aware that Bomar and Quinn were working at the dealership last fall until Oklahoma’s compliance staff investigated the situation.
•California quarterback Steve Levy was reinstated to the team, one day after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor for his involvement in a bar fight in June.
Swimming and diving
Phelps tops Crocker
Michael Phelps beat world-record holder Ian Crocker in the 100-meter butterfly, and newcomer Cullen Jones outsprinted a talented field to win the 50 freestyle in the U.S. Summer Nationals swimming championships at Irvine, Calif.
Auto racing
Deer injures driver
Champ Car driver Cristiano da Matta needed surgery to remove a ruptured blood vessel in his head after his race car collided with a deer that wandered onto the track during a test session at Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wis.
•Sarah Fisher, the first woman to win the pole in a major auto racing series, will make her first IndyCar start since 2004 at the Kentucky Speedway. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing hired Fisher for the Indy 300 on Aug. 13.
Miscellany
Trooper pleads guilty
A former New Jersey state trooper pleaded guilty in Mount Holly, N.J., to helping run a gambling ring and promised to help authorities with their case against former hockey star Rick Tocchet and others.
In a negotiated deal, James Harney, 40, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, promoting gambling and official misconduct.
He faces up to seven years in prison at his sentencing Oct. 27.
•At Indianapolis, the NCAA approved a way to identify teams with long-term academic problems and will begin assessing penalties starting in 2007-08, including postseason bans and the loss of scholarships.
•U.S. soccer star Eddie Pope is retiring from international competition, ending a career in which he played in three World Cups and the 1996 Olympics.