Maradona Failed Drug Test After Opener, Official Says

Soccer star Diego Maradona failed a drug test after the first game of the Argentine league season Sunday, the Argentine Football Assn. said.

AFA spokesman Washington Rivera told The Associated Press on Thursday night that Maradona tested positive for “prohibited substances.” He gave no further details.

Maradona has three days in which to demand a second test, Rivera said.

“I’ve just found out about this and I am completely surprised,” Maradona’s agent, Guillermo Coppola, said Thursday. “I last saw Diego this morning and he seemed fine. I’m sure he too is amazed.”

Coppola said Maradona was taking “some medication” to aid his latest comeback. He did not specify what medicine that was.

Maradona, 36, protested vehemently Sunday after his number was pulled out of a bag to undergo a drug test after a match in which he scored on a penalty kick in Boca Junior’s 4-2 victory over Argentinos Juniors.

Maradona, who led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1986, twice has failed drug tests in his career.

Preki’s goal in the 53rd minute gave the Kansas City Wizards a 1-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids and a berth in the Major League Soccer playoffs.

Mark Chung passed to Preki, who beat a defender and shot to the left of goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann to extend the Wizards’ winning streak to seven games.

Colorado (13-13) took seven shots, and Kansas City (19-7) had 12.

The crowd at Kansas City was announced as 7,619.

Boxing

WBA heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield will meet IBF champion Michael Moorer in Las Vegas on Nov. 8, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in today’s editions.

The newspaper said the bout will be held at Thomas and Mack Center, the site of Holyfield’s unification loss to Riddick Bowe in 1992. Holyfield was upset by Moorer in 1994.

Naseem Hamed of Britain has given up his International Boxing Federation featherweight title to avoid a mandatory defense against Hector Lizarraga.

Jurisprudence

Mississippi State football Coach Jackie Sherrill paid private investigators as much as $10,000 to help Derrick Taite fight rape charges in 1993, the former quarterback’s mother says in court documents in Pascagoula, Miss.

The charges stemmed from a campus incident that resulted in a Mississippi State student filing charges against Taite and three other players. A grand jury heard the case but never issued an indictment.

Documents obtained by the Mississippi Press show that Sherrill paid $10,000 to private investigators to help Taite defend himself after he was charged with attempted rape.

Taite’s mother, Gwendolyn Blackmon, testified in divorce proceedings earlier this year that at the time the rape case was under investigation by an Oktibbeha County Grand Jury, Sherrill paid two private investigators $5,000 each.

In the court document, dated March 10, Blackmon testified that she and her then-husband, Johnny Blackmon, did not incur any expenses for Taite’s legal defense.

It was unclear whether Sherrill’s alleged actions in helping clear Taite’s name violated NCAA rules concerning “extra benefits” for student-athletes.

Clay Bolton, the NCAA compliance officer at Mississippi State, claimed the NCAA apparently knew of the matter and had thoroughly investigated it. Bolton, who was not at Mississippi State at the time of the incident, said it was his understanding that the school had been cleared of any wrongdoing.

Golf

France’s Fabrice Tarnaud shot a nine-under-par 63 and took the first-round lead at the BMW Open at Munich, Germany, as European players scrambled to make the Ryder Cup team.

England’s Peter Baker, who would need to win the $1.2-million tournament to make the European team, was one shot back at 64, along with compatriot Carl Watts, South Africa’s Wayne Westner and Swedes Peter Hedblom and Patrik Sjoland.

Jose Maria Olazabal, 11th in the Ryder Cup standings, shot a 67. He needs a top-20 finish to clinch the 10th and final automatic berth on the Ryder Cup team.

Miscellany

Eastern Michigan’s Earl Boykins scored 17 points as the United States extended its men’s basketball winning streak to 31 at the World University Games by defeating Italy, 67-51, at Catania, Sicily.

The U.S., which last lost to host Yugoslavia in the 1987 gold-medal game, will go for its fifth consecutive title against Canada, which defeated Brazil, 85-58, in the other semifinal.

In swimming, Japan’s women won two gold and two silver medals and Cuba also won two gold, including one by Olympic bronze medalist Neisser Bent in the men’s 100-meter backstroke.