Baseball

Report: Deal to include blood testing for HGH

Baseball's new labor contract reportedly will include blood testing for human growth hormone, a rise in the minimum salary from $414,000 to at least $480,000 and luxury taxes on both amateur draft signings and international free agents coming to the major leagues.

Lawyers for players and owners are working to complete a memorandum of understanding on changes to the collective-bargaining agreement and hope to sign the deal by Tuesday. A person familiar with the negotiations disclosed some of the agreed-upon provisions to The Associated Press on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the five-year deal had not been announced.

The blood-testing aspect was first reported by The New York Times.

The agreement calls for blood testing to begin in February, when players report to spring training. Players who test positive will face a 50-game suspension, which will be the same as the first-time penalty for a positive steroid test, two sources told The New York Times.

Baseball will be the first of the major North American pro sports to do blood testing for drugs among unionized players.

Commissioner Bud Selig, who is sensitive about his legacy and the longstanding criticism he was too slow to react to the use of performance-enhancing drugs in his sport, will be able to cite the HGH-testing clause as proof of how seriously baseball treats the issue of drug use.

Tennis

Noah accuses Spanish athletes of doping

Frenchman Yannick Noah, the 1983 French Open champion, accused Spanish athletes of widespread doping in an interview published in the newspaper Le Monde, adding the only way to level the playing field would be to allow everyone to use banned drugs.

Noah said French athletes no longer had a chance against Spanish opponents and said his homeland was wrong to impose stringent testing on its athletes.

"How can a country (Spain) dominate sport from one day to the next?" Noah asked.

"Had they discovered avant-garde training techniques and methods that no one else imagined?"

Noah said Spanish athletes were consistently beefier than French athletes and said the only conclusion was that they must be doping. He offered no proof.

"If you don't have the magic potion, it's difficult to win," Noah said.

Figure skating

Chan, Russian teen win

World champion Patrick Chan of Canada won the Trophee Bompard in Paris for the third time and 14-year-old Elizaveta Tuktamisheva of Russia captured the women's title with a clean, composed program that had the crowd on its feet.

Chan and Tuktamisheva secured spots in next month's season-ending Grand Prix Final in Quebec City.

"I didn't skate badly but there were still a few minor mistakes I could improve on," Tuktamisheva said.

Chan started strongly by nailing a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination. But he lost his balance during a circular-step sequence and landed awkwardly on two jumps.

"The warmup felt really good, the program didn't," Chan said.

Elsewhere

• Sabercat won the $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot for 2-year-olds by 4 lengths over Basmati in Vinton, La.

Sabercat, a colt trained by Steve Asmussen and ridden by Gerard Melancon, ran 1-1/16 miles on a fast track in 1 minute, 46.62 seconds. The colt paid $18 to win in the Grade III race.

• Bourbon Bay, a 5-year-old gelding owned by Dave and Jill Heerensperger of Bellevue, finished second in the Grade I Hollywood Turf Cup in Inglewood, Calif.

German-bred Sanagas won the $250,000 race by 3 ¼ lengths.

Sanagas, a 5-year-old gelding trained by H. Graham Motion and ridden by Rajiv Maragh, ran 1 ½ miles in 2:27.53 and paid $5.20 to win as the favorite in a field of seven.

• In mixed martial arts, 41-year-old Dan Henderson won by unanimous decision over 29-year-old Mauricio Rua in a light-heavyweight fight at UFC 139 in San Jose, Calif.

• The U.S. women's soccer team tied Sweden 1-1 in an exhibition match before 18,482 fans in Glendale, Ariz.

Sofia Jakobsson scored for Sweden in the 28th minute and Tobin Heath connected for the Americans off a rebound in the 81st minute.

The United States had 19 shots, compared with seven for the Swedes.

Seattle Times news services