LAUSANNE: France's double Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec has pulled out of next month's World Athletics Championships because of her disappointing form.

After finishing second in a 200 metres race at the Lausanne Grand Prix yesterday, Perec said her form was not good enough to defend her women's 400 metres title at the Athens championships.

``I have won Olympic and World titles and I am not going to go to an event where I can't win,'' said Perec, the Olympic 200 and 400 metres champion.

Umpire banned

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian hockey player who was suspended for spitting at an umpire should have known better he is an international field hockey umpire himself.

S Ramanieswaran, an umpire on the world panel, spat at umpire MK Narayanaswamy after being ordered off the field by an infringement while playing for his local club yesterday, The Sun newspaper reported.

Ramanieswaran was recently upgraded as an international umpire by the International Hockey Federation and is expected to stand in next year's Commonwealth Games here and the Asian Games in Bangkok.

Local officials in Ipoh, where the match was played, have suspended Ramanieswaran both as umpire and as a player for an ``indefinite period'', the paper said.

Vieri, Boksic move

TURIN: Italian champions juventus sold striker Christian Vieri to Atletico Madrid for $ 20 million yesterday and signed Uruguyan Daniel Fonseca from Roma.

Juve also said they had completed the sale of Croatian striker Alen Boksic to Rome side Lazio.

Meet cancelled

MOSCOW: A shortage of money has forced Russia's athletics federation to cancel this month's annual Goodwill meeting in St Petersburg.

``We're not holding it this year,'' vice-president and chief coach Vadim Zelechonok said yesterday. ``We just don't have the money.''

The meeting had been scheduled for July 8 in Russia's second biggest city.

Novotna to lead

PRAGUE: Wimbledon semifinalist Jana Novotna will lead the Czech Republic in their Fed Cup semifinal against the Netherlands on July 12-13. She teams up with Adriana Gersi, Sandra Kleinova and Eva Martincova.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.