Paper stands by doping story about Armstrong
Paris – The French sports newspaper that accused Lance Armstrong of doping stood by its reporting Thursday, a day after an investigator cleared the seven-time Tour de France champion.
“There is nothing to retract from the revelations,” L’Equipe said in an editorial that concluded: “For our part, we remain convinced of the need to battle without compromise against the mafialike tendencies that still and always threaten the sport of cycling. Both in the method and the substance, L’Equipe stands firm.”
The newspaper repeated its allegations of last August that tests on six of Armstrong’s urine samples from the 1999 Tour had detected an “irrefutable presence” of the banned endurance-boosting hormone EPO.
The samples “showed that the American did indeed lie by saying throughout his career, notably at the time in question, that he never took banned products,” the newspaper said.
Dutch investigator Emile Vrijman, who was appointed by cycling’s governing body to investigate the handling of the urine tests by the French national anti-doping laboratory, cleared Armstrong in a report released Wednesday.
The report said tests on the urine samples were conducted improperly and fell so short of scientific standards that it was “completely irresponsible” to suggest they “constitute evidence of anything.”
GOLF
Wie struggles as shot at U.S. Open looms
Michelle Wie has a good chance of becoming the first woman to qualify for the U.S. Open if she can work out the kinks in her swing tempo over the next few days, instructor David Leadbetter said.
Wie practiced on the range and then played nine holes on the Canoe Brook Country Club’s North Course in Summit, N.J., in preparation for Monday’s 36-hole U.S. Open sectional qualifier.
All the 16-year-old star has to do to make the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y., is finish in the top 18 in the field of 153 players.
“She just qualified on the practice tee,” Leadbetter quipped after working on Wie’s swing for more than an hour. “I think she’s got a decent shot at it. She is confident. She had a very good outing in Korea a few weeks ago and she is swinging pretty well overall.”
Playing in front of fewer than a dozen spectators, Wie yanked the ball left on the second, third, fourth, fifth and seventh holes. Her frustration seemed to peak at the 212-yard, par-3 seventh, where she took five shots off the tee. Her first finished on the adjacent sixth fairway. Three of the next four landed short and left in a greenside bunker. The other went over the green.
“Give her a day or so,” Leadbetter said. “She hit a lot of good shots, too.”
HORSE RACING
Jockey Velazquez set for return
John Velazquez is ready to return to racing five weeks after a frightening spill left the nation’s top jockey with a cracked right shoulder blade and bruised ribs. The timing couldn’t be better, either, allowing Velazquez to ride Bluegrass Cat in the $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 10 in Elmont, N.Y. Velazquez’s first race is set for today, when he climbs aboard Scat Daddy for trainer Todd Pletcher in the third race at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J.
Edgar Prado, who rode Barbaro to victory in the Derby and was aboard when the colt broke down in the Preakness, will ride Deputy Glitters in the Belmont.
BOXING
Calzaghe fight called because of injury
Joe Calzaghe called off the July 8 defense of his World Boxing Organization and International Boxing Federation super-middleweight titles after re-injuring his left hand during training. No opponent had been named for the the unbeaten Welshman.
Bobby Dykes, a boxer in the 1940s and 1950s who fought Kid Gavilan and Sugar Ray Robinson, died Wednesday in Coral Gables, Fla. He was 77. Dykes, who had Lou Gehrig’s disease for about eight years, finished his 11-year career with a record of 115-23-8, with 54 knockouts.
