SOTOMAYOR STRIPPED OF GOLD AFTER TESTING POSITIVE FOR COCAINE

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) -- Cuban high jump great Javier Sotomayor was
stripped of his gold medal at the Pan American Games on Wednesday after
testing positive for cocaine, the biggest drug scandal to hit track and
field since sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold at the 1988 Seoul
Olympics.

Sotomayor, considered Cuba's most popular athlete, will be suspended for two
years -- knocking him out of this month's world championships and the Sydney
Olympics, said Primo Nebiolo, president of track and field's international
federation.

"I am shocked. I cannot believe it. I am very surprised and upset because I
have great esteem for Sotomayor," Nebiolo said from a meet in Monaco.

Cuban officials said Sotomayor never took cocaine and they said the
substance had been planted in something he ate or drank.

"He is such a gentleman. To us, it is almost impossible he would take this
substance," said Rodrigo Alvarez Cambra, a leader of the Cuban delegation.
"He has told us he has not taken this substance and we believe his word.

It is up to the Cuban federation to suspend Sotomayor, the world record
holder and the only man to clear 8 feet. But Nebiolo said if the Cubans do
not suspend Sotomayor, the IAAF will.

IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said he expected the Cuban federation to appeal.

Mario Vasquez Rana, president of the Pan American Sports Organization, said
that in doping cases, his group does not differentiate a recreational drug
such as cocaine from a performance-enhancing substance such as a steroid.

On Friday, Sotomayor became the first person to win four Pan Am track and
field titles in the same event when he cleared 7-6 1/2 in the high jump. The
gold medal will now go to Canada's Kwaku Boateng and Mark Boswell, who had
tied for the silver.

Sotomayor was seen in Cuba on Tuesday night, standing beside President Fidel
Castro at a rally for the gold medal-winning baseball team.

Sotomayor's wife answered the door at their one-story blue stucco home in
Havana's upscale Miramar neighborhood Wednesday and refused to comment.. She
called government officials, asking them to make the reporters leave.

Officials said the government would issue a formal statement about Sotomayor
Wednesday night.

Drug abuse is almost unheard of in Cuba, and earlier this year the country
revised the penal code to extend the death penalty for government officials
who engage in drug trafficking.

Sotomayor is the third athlete, all gold medalists, to test positive at
these games.

A positive test by Steve Vezina, goalie for Canada's in-line roller hockey
team, cost the team its gold medal. Juana Rosario Arrendel, winner of the
women's high jump and the only gold medalist from the Dominican Republic at
the games so far, was stripped of her medal as well.

In addition, Ray Martinez, a member of Mexico's baseball team, refused to
take a drug test, which was tantamount to a positive result.

Eduardo de Rose, medical chief for the Pan Am Games, said it makes no
difference how the cocaine got in Sotomayor's system.

"Once the substance is found in urine, we do not question where it came from
and the reason for taking it," de Rose said.

Sotomayor's sample showed cocaine in quantities consistent with a person who
uses the drug, de Rose said.

Sotomayor, won the 1992 Olympic gold medal, the 1993 and 1997 world outdoor
championships, and the 1989, 1993, 1995 and 1999 world indoor championships.

The positive test was a further embarrassment to Cuba's team at the Pan Am
games. Eight Cubans have left the delegation, including one journalist, with
authorities saying at least seven plan to defect.

The finding against Sotomayor marked the biggest scandal in track and field
since Johnson was stripped of his 100-meter gold medal and world record in
Seoul for using the performance-enhancing drug stanozolol.

Sotomayor's case was the third involving big-name track athletes in the past
two days.

On Tuesday, Dennis Mitchell, the U.S. 100-meter champion and 1992 Olympic
bronze medalist, was banned for two years by the IAAF after a drug test
showed high levels of testosterone. Earlier Wednesday, Britain's Linford
Christie, the 1992 Olympic 100-meter gold medalist, was suspended by the
IAAF after a drug test showed the possible presence of an anabolic steroid.
Christie insisted he was innocent and intends to fight the charges.