Petranoff Taken Off South African Team

Tom Petranoff, former world record-holder in the javelin, is off the South African team that returns to the Olympics this month after an absence of 32 years, an official from the National Olympic Committee of South Africa said Wednesday.

The inclusion of Petranoff, an American who became a naturalized South African and had the fourth-best throw of 1992 last month, met strong opposition from black officials when the executive committee of Athletics South Africa met last weekend. Athletics South Africa then asked the national Olympic committee to make a final decision, and the Olympic committee feared demonstrations against the South African team if Petranoff were included.

Petranoff was part of a U.S. rebel track team that toured South Africa in 1989 at the height of the international sports boycott imposed because of the country’s apartheid policies.

He stayed in South Africa when threatened with a lifetime ban in the United States.