An unidentified Canadian athlete failed a drug test at the Pan American Games, the host nation’s Olympic committee confirmed Saturday. The Canadian Olympic Association would not say which sport was involved or when the doping infraction occurred. But the Pan American Sports Organization notified the COA that a Canadian athlete tested positive for a controlled substance. It is the first positive test at these games in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The U.S. baseball team moved one victory from a spot in the Sydney Olympics when it beat Panama 5-2. If it beats Mexico on Sunday it earns a berth in the 2000 Games.
American tennis, softball and soccer players were very stingy, and the women’s basketball team was anything but, leaving it to the men to salvage U.S. pride on the court. The women sustained their worst Pan Am loss ever, 95-64 to Cuba. The U.S. men’s squad of CBA all-stars, sparked by the defense of 7-foot Mikki Moore, rolled past Cuba 89-48. Carl Thomas led the Americans with 17 points.
Nobody was more dominating than 18-year-old tennis phenom Alexandra Stevenson, who routed Francine Harvey of Antiqua 6-0, 6-0.
The women’s softball team registered its third straight shutout, beating the Netherlands Antilles 7-0, and a 3-0 win over Canada gave the U.S. women’s soccer squad an 18-1 scoring edge in the preliminary round.
Harness racing: Self Possessed showed that he will be the horse to beat in the $1 million Hambletonian by winning his $100,000 elimination by six lengths at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J. Self Possessed’s winning time was 1 minute 53 seconds. In the other Hambletonian elimination, lightly raced Angus Hall beat Cherry Hills by 4 1/2 lengths in a career-best 1:54 3/5. The other six horses to qualify for next Saturday’s Hambletonian were Enjoy Lavec, Comets Tail, Davanti, Rafaello Ambrosio, Pearsall Hanover and CR Commando.
Auto racing: Mika Hakkinen won the pole for Sunday’s German Grand Prix in Hockenheim, Germany, edging Heinz-Harald Frentzen by .050 seconds.
– Mark Dismore took the pole for the Indy Racing League’s MBNA Mid-Atlantic 200 in Dover, Del., with a lap at 182.639 m.p.h.
Boxing: Erik Morales stopped Reynante Jamili at the end of the sixth round to retain the WBC super-bantamweight crown in Tijuana, Mexico.
