Sport in Short: Olympic Games

THE International Olympic Committee's plan to allow Yugoslav athletes to compete as an 'Independent Team' in the forthcoming Games has been rejected by a United Nations sanctions committee in New York. The IOC formula, designed to sidestep the sporting sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council on 30 May, had won the backing of most countries but Austria, Hungary and Ecuador rejected it. Any of the committee's 15 members can impose a veto. The committee instead sent a letter asking the IOC to rethink their plan so that athletes from Serbia and Montenegro would not be seen to compete as a team. Michele Verdier, spokeswomen for the IOC, said they would reply today adding: 'We are trying our best and giving out all the energy we have to protect the rights of the athletes. We will try until the last point to find a solution.'

OFFICIALS from Britain, Germany, the United States and Canada are protesting against an attempt to reduce the size of the traditional parade of teams at the opening ceremony in Barcelona on Saturday. They say the plan bars most coaches and officials from the march into the Olympic Stadium.

BUTCH REYNOLDS, who has been told by the IOC he will be denied access to the Olympic Village and will not be registered as an athlete if he travels to Barcelona with the US team, intends to appeal to the World Court in The Hague. A plan to appear in the Opening Ceremony as a team official has been scuppered by the Americans themselves, who say he will only appear as an athlete. If all else fails, Reynolds is likely to go to the Games as a television commentator.