Thunder party planned

area

Thunder party planned

YOUNGSTOWN — The Children’s Museum of the Valley has a Meet and Greet Pizza Party for the Mahoning Valley Thunder planned.

The Chldren’s Museum has tickets on sale for the Thunder’s game May 5.

The museum will have a pizza party with members of the team present.

For details call (330) 744-5914.

Soccer meeting set

BOARDMAN — The Mahoning Valley Soccer League will meet at The Jock Stop, 7344 Market St., on May 12 at 7 p.m.

The league, for players age 25 and older, is limited to eight teams.

For details call (330) 726-8407.

nation

Lowe takes lead

DAHLONEGA, Ga. — Richard England, a former track cycling specialist from Australia, raced to the biggest road win of his career and countryman Trent Lowe moved into the overall lead Friday in the Tour de Georgia.

Lowe, riding for Slipstream-Chipotle, jumped to the front with about 200 yards left and rode to a powerful downhill sprint to win the 133.4-mile Suwanee to Dahlonega road race in 5 hours, 15 minutes, 15 seconds.

“I had strong legs all week; If I got over the final climb near the front, I knew I had a good chance,” said England, who finished fourth in the opening stage and eighth in the third.

Track and steroids

SAN FRANCISCO — Anti-doping authorities must turn over notes of their interviews with three disgraced track stars to lawyers for former coach Trevor Graham, who’s accused of lying to investigators in a steroids probe.

Graham, whose trial is scheduled to begin May 19 in a San Francisco federal court, is accused of lying about receiving steroids from trainer Angel Heredia.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said she likely will order the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to give Graham’s lawyers its notes from interviews with Calvin Harrison, Michelle Collins and Duane Ross, all of whom once trained with Graham.

Cheeks fined $25K

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia coach Maurice Cheeks was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Friday for his actions after Game 2 of the 76ers’ playoff series against Detroit.

Cheeks was cited for verbal abuse of the officials and for not leaving the court and going directly to the locker room at the end of Philadelphia’s 105-88 loss.

“It’s just an error in judgment by me,” Cheeks said before Game 3. “They have the upper hand. I just need to abide by the rules.”

Gymnastics in brief

INDIANAPOLIS — Morgan Hamm’s petition to the U.S. gymnastics championships was approved Friday, keeping alive his quest to make a third Olympic squad.

Hamm, an Ohio State graduate, dropped out of a qualifying meet Wednesday, suffering from an allergic reaction that made breathing difficult. He is on the comeback trail after tearing a pectoral muscle in October. The qualifying meet in Colorado Springs, Colo., was his first competition since the injury.

He planned to compete in four events, but dropped out after two, saying he could barely breathe during the floor exercise. It meant he had to file a petition to gain a spot in next month’s nationals. Predictably, the request was approved.

world

Olympic torch update

NAGANO, Japan — Japanese runners bypassed minor protests Saturday and carried the Olympic torch through Nagano’s streets, lined by thousands of riot police and closely monitored by helicopters overhead.

Police guards in track suits surrounded the first runner — the manager of Japan’s national baseball team — and another 100 uniformed riot police trotted alongside six patrol cars and two motorcycles. They were backed up by thousands of other police.

Japanese officials said the security was unavoidable, and called for calm. But the high-profile police presence dissipated any festive mood in Nagano, which hosted the 1998 Winter Games.

Vindicator staff/wire reports