TRACK

Doping case involving Jamaican sprinter appears to involve a ‘lesser’ offense

The doping case involving Jamaican sprint star Veronica Campbell-Brown appears to involve a “lesser” offense of unintentional use of a banned substance, the sport’s world governing body said Wednesday.

The reigning 200-meter world champion and three-time Olympic gold medalist was suspended by Jamaica’s national federation Tuesday pending an investigation into a positive drug test.

Jamaican officials said Campbell-Brown, the 2004 and 2008 Olympic champion in the 200, tested positive for a banned diuretic at a meet on the island in May.

The sanction for a lesser offense can be a reduced penalty — a suspension of a few months to a year or a public warning — rather than a standard two-year ban.

Diuretics can be used to mask the use of banned substances.

COLLEGES

BASEBALL: Matt Boyd pitched a four-hitter and struck out 11, and Oregon State made a fourth-inning sacrifice fly stand for a 1-0 victory to eliminate Indiana in the College World Series at Omaha, Neb.

The Beavers (52-12) face Mississippi State on Friday needing to beat the Bulldogs twice to reach the finals.

TENNIS

WOMEN: Serena Williams said she’s reaching out to the family of the victim in the Steubenville rape case after the tennis star was quoted in a Rolling Stone article saying “she shouldn’t have put herself in that position.”

In a statement released through her agent, Williams said: “What was written — what I supposedly said — is insensitive and hurtful, and I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame.”

The comment was made in one paragraph of a lengthy story posted online Tuesday about Williams.

Two players from the Steubenville, Ohio, high school football team were convicted in March of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl.

WIMBLEDON: Two-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova pulled out of Wimbledon because of an abdominal strain.

• Rafael Nadal is seeded No. 5 at Wimbledon, setting up the possibility of a quarterfinal match against Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray.

The All England Club released the seedings Wednesday for this year’s championships.

Djokovic is No. 1 in the men’s draw, Serena Williams No. 1 in the women’s draw.

AUTO RACING

NASCAR: The funeral service for NASCAR driver Jason Leffler drew Sprint Cup stars Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle and Brad Keselowski among the more than 800 people who filled Grace Covenant Church in Cornelius, N.C.

The 37-year-old Leffler, known by the nickname “LEFturn,” died a week ago when his sprint car crashed into a wall at a New Jersey dirt track.

— From news service reports