Official Says Kordic Didn't Use Steroids During Portland Stint

-- HOCKEY

Brian Shaw, Portland Winter Hawks president, denied a report that John Kordic used steroids while a player with the Western Hockey League club.

Kordic, who had played in the National Hockey League, died Aug. 8. Police found 40 unused syringes and several boxes of anabolic steroids in his Quebec City motel room.

Bill Laforge, who formerly coached in the Ontario and Western junior hockey leagues, said he knew of Kordic's steroid use while Kordic played for Portland (1982-85), but Shaw said, "Our players are not on steroids because we've had drug testing since 1981."

-- Center Rick Mearns, 17, of the Portland Winter Hawks, was killed Friday night in his hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan, when his car hit another car from behind, then flipped several times.

-- KAYAK/CANOE

The Seattle Canoe Club won three titles at the U.S. Canoe & Kayak team National Championships at Lake Natoma, Calif.: Rocky Coleman in intermediate men's 500-meter kayak; Dawn Marie Scherer and Olivia White, junior women's pairs 500 kayak; and Olympians Greg Barton of Bellingham and Norm Bellingham of Maryland, senior men's 500 kayak.

-- Poulsbo's Scott Shipley, also an Olympian, won the men's single kayak race in the international whitewater series event in South Bend, Ind., beating Frenchman Jean Michel Regnier, current overall standings leader, by more than two seconds.

-- ROWING

The U.S. junior men's eight, including Peter Stroble of Port Angeles and Terran Senftleben of McChord Air Force Base, won the gold medal and the junior women's eight won the bronze at the world junior championships in Montreal. The junior women's four without coxswain, including Kendra Bergstrom of Seattle and Jennifer Dowling of Longview, placed fifth.

-- BOWLING

Jerry Brunette Sr. of Rochester, N.Y., bowled a 299 and wound up leading the pre-qualifying section of the $55,000 Lansing (Mich.) PBA Senior Open by eight pins over Bob Graham of Whitting, Ind.

-- BASEBALL

A week after returning from the Olympics, Ron Fraser, the coach of the U.S. team, revealed that for the past six months he has had an aneurysm in his stomach. Fraser, 56, said the aneurysm has not been painful and he is debating surgery.

-- SOCCER

Mark Robins scored twice in the second half as Norwich upset league favorite Arsenal 4-2 on opening day of England's new Premier League.

The Premier League consists of the top 22 English clubs, who broke from the 92-team English League after gaining a $577 million, five-year TV contract.

-- Argentina star Diego Maradona rejected Napoli's reply to his conditions to return to Italy following his 15-month suspension for cocaine use.

-- RUGBY

New Zealand beat South Africa 27-24 as a crowd of 70,000 roared and waved flags as the teams took the field, marking South Africa's return to international rugby after an 11-year absence because of apartheid.

-- COLLEGES

Nancy Katzer, two-time most-inspirational player at Central Washington, has been named Wildcats' first softball coach. Central begins playing intercollegiate softball next spring.

-- DIVING

Olympic gold medalist Mark Lenzi defended his U.S. 3-meter springboard title in Woodlands, Texas, beating Kent Ferguson by 25 points, and three-time Argentine Olympian Veronica Ribot-Canales narrowly won the women's crown. Lenzi, 24, also won the 1-meter title Friday.

-- NOTEWORTHY

Using an unloaded camera as a ruse, two Cuban field-hockey players slipped away from their teammates and defected in Morris Township, N.J., while pretending to take photographs as tourists, the pair said.