Usa Track Suspends Slaney For Drug Use

Mary Slaney, America’s premier distance runner, was suspended by USA Track & Field for alleged drug use, making her ineligible for the national championships that began Wednesday at Indianapolis, a track and field source said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the action was taken Tuesday night by USATF’s five-member drug custodial board. USATF had no comment on the suspension.

Apparently, Slaney was not informed of the board’s decision Tuesday night because she said she planned to compete in the championships, with her first race in the 1,500 meters scheduled for Friday.

“I wish they would make up their minds,” Slaney’s husband, Richard, said by phone from Eugene, Ore. “Yesterday, she was eligible, today she’s ineligible. This becomes more bizarre by the minute.”

Asked if he and his wife still planned to come, Slaney said, “Why should we?” She said her next move was to talk to her lawyer.

If the suspension is upheld, Slaney would be stripped of all her performance results from the time the urine sample was taken at the trials last June.

After four events in the women’s hepthathlon, the leader was Kym Carter, a 1992 Olympian, with 3,854 points. DeDee Nathan was second with 3,817, and Kelly Blair, who upset Jackie Joyner-Kersee in winning last year’s Olympic trials, was third with 3,672.

Bill Schuffenhaur of Moscow USA track club is fourth in the decathlon. See local roundup on page C3 for more details.

Wilson Kipketer’s 800-meter world indoor records were officially ratified by the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

Kipketer, a native of Kenya now living in Denmark, broke the indoor mark twice at the world indoor championships in Paris in March.

On March 7, he ran 1 minute, 43.96 seconds, wiping out the old mark of 1:44.84 set in 1989 by Kenyan Paul Ereng. In the finals two days later, Kipketer smashed the record again - this time beating his own time - with a new mark of 1:42.67.