In brief: Tapia hospitalized after cocaine overdose
Five-time world champion Johnny Tapia remained hospitalized Tuesday in Albuquerque, N.M., after an apparent cocaine overdose, the latest episode outside the ring in the fighter’s turbulent life.
The 40-year-old Tapia was in serious condition at Presbyterian Hospital, said Todd Sandman, the hospital’s director of public relations.
Meanwhile, Tapia’s family was mourning the loss of the boxer’s brother-in-law.
State police said Robert Gutierrez, 39, was killed early Tuesday when the vehicle he was in went off a highway in northwestern New Mexico and rolled, ejecting him and another man.
Tapia was taken to the hospital Monday after paramedics responded to an early-morning call about a person who wasn’t breathing at a hotel room, said officer Trish Hoffman of the Albuquerque Police Department.
“It appears to be an overdose,” Hoffman said.
Police discovered a plastic bag containing a white substance, which was confirmed by tests as cocaine.
Volleyball
Final season for Kiraly
Karch Kiraly, the man in the pink hat who happens to be the world’s most decorated volleyball player, announced that this season will be his last on the AVP Crocs Tour.
Kiraly’s farewell tour comes 28 years after his first beach tournament victory, with Sinjin Smith at Santa Cruz in 1979. The same year, they helped UCLA win the NCAA indoor volleyball title.
Tennis
Sharapova ousted
Defending champion Maria Sharapova was knocked out of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Calif., a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 loss to Vera Zvonareva that will cost her the No. 1 ranking. She will be supplanted by Justine Henin.
Miscellany
Super-G endangered
The super-G could be eliminated as an Alpine discipline to shorten the number of races on the World Cup calendar. The super-G was added to the World Cup program in the 1982-83 season.
If the super-G is dropped by the World Cup circuit, it will no longer be raced at the Olympics.
“Switzerland’s Juerg Gruenenfelder, 33, who just missed a medal at the 1998 Olympics, retired from World Cup skiing because of injuries from a December crash.
“Adam Malysz won a ski jumping World Cup event in Kuopio, Finland.
“Brazilian swimmer Renata Burgos was suspended two years after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.
“Dr. Don Catlin, one of the world’s leading anti-doping experts, is leaving the UCLA Olympic lab he founded to devote his time to creating better tests to catch drug cheats.
“Despite a judge’s decision to drop the case, cycling vowed to pursue its investigation of riders implicated in a Spanish doping probe.
If there is no appeal, the UCI hopes to use the evidence gathered in the Spanish investigation for its disciplinary procedures.