Court Takes Away Botha’s Title

Heavyweight champion Francois Botha of South Africa lost his International Boxing Federation belt Wednesday after a federal judge in Newark, N.J., ordered him disqualified because he tested positive for steroid use after his last fight.

The IBF’s failure to remove the champion, who eventually admitted using the banned substance, was an “egregious” violation of its own rules, the judge said.

The decision, unless overturned on appeal, would set up a fight for the vacant title between Michael Moorer and Axel Schulz, who lost to Botha in December.

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NFL players asked the Supreme Court to let athletes file antitrust lawsuits against leagues that impose salaries after reaching a bargaining impasse with players’ unions.

The NFL Players Assn. is seeking to have overturned a court decision that said for employees to file under antitrust laws, they must give up union representation under federal labor law.

Football

The Maryland Board of Public Works voted to approve financing for a $200-million football stadium in Baltimore for the former Cleveland Browns and a deal for $70.5 million in road and infrastructure improvements around a planned Redskins’ stadium in Prince George’s County.

The Board of Trustees of Magnolia Elementary School District in Anaheim will meet Tuesday to discuss returning Rams Park to its original purpose, a school, now that Seahawk owner Ken Behring has decided to return the team to Seattle to practice.

Wide receiver Don Beebe, 31, a seven-year NFL veteran who played with the Carolina Panthers last season, agreed to terms on a one-year contract with the Green Bay Packers, who will use him as their third receiver. . . . Free-agent defensive lineman Dan Owens, 29, who spent six seasons with the Detroit Lions, has reached agreement on a two-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons. . . . Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti has signed a five-year contract that boosts his annual salary by $95,000 per year, to $270,000.

Drugs

A Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland has denied an appeal by the National Wheelchair Basketball Assn., whose USA Wheelchair Basketball team was ordered to return gold medals won at the 1992 Paralympic Games at Barcelona because a player failed a drug test.

Fifty hours before the U.S. team was to play the Netherlands for the gold medal, David Kiley, who is in the process of relocating from Pomona to Charlotte, N.C., took a Darvocet given him by Coach Harry Vines to relieve pain. After the game, Kiley tested positive for one of the components of Darvocet, dextropropoxyphene, a banned substance.

British 800-meter runner Diane Modahl, cleared of doping charges this week, says she will rely on a private drug-testing expert to avoid any scandals in the future.

Tatiana Pozdniakova of Ukraine has been stripped of her Houston-Tenneco Marathon title after a urine test for drugs came back positive for Pseudoephedrine and ephredrine.

Miscellany

Third-seeded Carlos Costa lost to Magnus Norman, 6-4, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, and sixth-seeded Jordi Burillo lost to Thomas Carbonell, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, in the second round of the King Hassan II Casablanca Open tennis tournament in Morocco.

Texas Motorplex and Houston Raceway Park have been awarded second racing dates for 1997 by the National Hot Rod Assn. Texas Motorplex, near Dallas, will have races April 3-6 and Oct. 9-12, and Houston will have races March 20-23 and Oct. 16-19.

Mark Goodkey, 22, a University of Alberta hockey player killed by a slap shot when he was hit in the neck during a game Sunday, will be remembered in a funeral service Friday.

Names in the News

Arizona State University named Kevin White as its athletic director. . . . Jeff Hammond, who spent the first 11 years of his NASCAR Winston Cup career as crew chief for Darrell Waltrip, has returned to work for Waltrip as team manager. . . . Named to the U.S. team for the world gymnastics champions in San Juan were Amy Chow, Dominique Dawes, Jaycie Phelps and Kristy Powell on the women’s side and Garry Denk, Chris LaMorte, Steve McCain, Bill Roth, Mark Sohn and Chainey Umphrey on the men’s.