Dispatches

The World Anti-Doping Agency recently declined USA Track & Field's bid to have WADA take over its embattled testing program. WADA instead chose to play an oversight role and is said still to be miffed that USATF has not released details of what the agency says are 10 positive doping cases, which became an issue during the Sydney Olympics....

The International Cycling Union, which had planned to destroy frozen urine samples taken from riders during the 2000 Tour dc France, said last week it will preserve them after all, pending a more reliable test for the performance-enhancing hormone EPO. If illegal substances are discovered later, riders could face retroactive sanctions....

Norwegian crosscountry ski hero Bjorn Daehlie, whose 12 medals are the most of any winter Olympian, will be out until at least March with a bad back. Daehlie missed most of last season after he suffered a training fall while on roller skis....

Though no Kenyan has won an Olympic marathon, Kenyan men this month established the record for the most sub-2:20 marathons run in a year by a single nation (268, by 171 runners). The old mark of 267 was set in 1983 by—surprise!—the U.S., which still holds the mark for most individual runners (193) under 2:20 in one year....

Paul Tergat, Kenya's Olympic silver medalist in the 10,000 meters and five-time world crosscountry champ, who on Nov. 12 won his second half-marathon world title, has said he will make his full marathon debut in London next April....

The IOC, which includes shooting as one of its summer sports, has shot down the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's bid to name an official gun sponsor of the 2002 Games, saying that handguns do not mesh with the Olympics' mission of peace. The company SIG Sauer had agreed to provide $150,000 in funding and commemorative sidearms to police officers who volunteered during the Olympics....

Deeming several tunes inappropriate for the occasion, an SLOC official insisted America's Opening ski organizers stop playing Tina Turner's The Bitch Is Back, Lou Bega's Mambo Number Five and the Bob Weir version of Salt Lake City as the women competed in giant slalom races last Thursday.