Maradona charged with drug distribution

Diego Maradona was charged yesterday with possession and distribution of drugs in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and released from jail on $20,000 bond.

Maradona was forbidden to leave Argentina pending trial, in accordance with an order issued Saturday night by Federal Judge Amelia Berraz de Vidal.

Federal Prosecutor Roberto Amayo said outside the Federal Court Building that Maradona, arrested Friday with two companions, was accused of "distributing drugs free of charge and drug possession."

Test results on the small quantity of white powder seized were not disclosed. Two local news agencies, Noticias Argentinas and Diarios y Noticias, reported Maradona's urine tested positive for cocaine.

Stan Gelbaugh, the World League of American Football's top-ranked passer, threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns to lead the unbeaten London Monarchs past the winless Raleigh-Durham SkyHawks, 35-10, in Wembley, England.

Gelbaugh, a Maryland alumnus who completed 29 of 39 passes, had a 1-yard touchdown pass to Jeff Alexander, a 25-yarder to Andre Riley and an 8-yarder to Tony Sargent, as the Monarchs broke open the game in the second half.

Table tennis

The first unified team of North Korea and South Korea advanced to the finals of the women's event at the World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan.

The Korean women will face China, seeking its ninth straight title, for the championship today.

In the men's competition, defending champion Sweden won a two-hour match over France in the opening round. The United States men's team also reached the round of 16, edging Denmark, 3-2, in a playoff.

Pro basketball

Miami Heat forward Alec Kessler turned up safe and sound last night after his failure to check in with family during a boating trip in the Bahamas prompted a two-day search by the Coast Guard.

Kessler's fiancee, Rhea Harrelson, notified the Coast Guard last night that Kessler had called her on a cellular phone to say he was in the Abaco Islands and in no danger, a spokesman said.

Kessler, 24, and two friends had left the Miami area Thursday afternoon, heading for the Bimini Islands, about 100 miles to the east, after loading camping gear on Kessler's 33-foot speed boat at Baker's Haulover Marina.

The Coast Guard launched an aerial search that eventually covered 28,000 square miles of Atlantic Ocean after Harrelson called late Friday to report that she had not heard from Kessler as she had expected.

College basketball

The National Collegiate Athletic Association men's rules committee will debate during meetings that start today in Kansas City, Mo., whether to move the three-point arc nine inches farther away.

The NCAA and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics rules currently draw the three-point line at 19 feet, 9 inches. If the ruling is adopted during the three-day meeting, the line would conform with the international standard of 20-6.

Soccer

Ted Eck scored at 4 minutes, 27 seconds of overtime to give the Kansas City Comets a 5-4 victory over the visiting Cleveland Crunch. The Crunch leads the Major Soccer League Eastern Division finals, 3-2.

Tennis

Rain forced suspension of the Monte Carlo Open final between Boris Becker and Sergi Bruguera.

Becker was serving for the first set at 5-4 when the match was halted. Officials waited three hours before suspending play for the day. The match is scheduled to resume today.

Gymnastics

Lance Ringnald led a U.S. sweep of the top four spots in the all-around competition at a men's dual gymnastics meet against Romania in Albuquerque, N.M.

The United States won the two-day event at University Arena with 579.075 team points, and Romania, ranked sixth in the world, finished with 573.525.

The victory marks the first time a U.S. team has defeated a Romanian team since the 1984 Olympics, said Patti Auer of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation. The Americans topped Romania in the Goodwill Games last year, but Auer said it wasn't a full team

competition.

College baseball

Erik Sheetz, a junior from Aberdeen, tripled and homered to lead Towson State (24-19-1, 12-5) past host Drexel (3-30, 1-17) in an East Coast Conference game, 10-3. The homer, the fourth for Sheetz in three days, was No. 14 for the season, No. 21 for a career, both school records.

* University of Maryland Baltimore County (26-17) included only four extra-base hits (doubles) in a 24-hit attack against visiting Brooklyn College (3-20), and won the game, 20-12. The Retrievers scored in six of their eight at-bats, and Brooklyn bunched its runs into three innings.

* Steve Beglaiter singled home Todd Nutter with the winning run in the ninth, as the University of Maryland (21-24-1) completed its comeback from a 4-1 deficit to defeat Virginia (25-24-2, 10-11) in an Atlantic Coast Conference game, 5-4.

* Navy (18-15) broke away from a tie at 4 with three runs in the sixth and two in the eighth to defeat visiting George Mason, 9-5. Matt Maloney, Lonny Stare and Mike Griffith had RBI hits in the sixth. Trailing, 7-4, in the seventh, George Mason put two on with none out, but Mark Moeller hit into a triple play.

* Long Island University (13-16-1, 4-7) got only two earned runs, but they were more than enough to defeat Mount St. Mary's (12-16, 5-6) in Northeast Conference action at Emmitsburg. The Mount got nine hits and stranded 16 runners.

* Rod Harrison's two-run single helped Salisbury State (8-19, 4-6) stop Frostburg State (17-11, 6-2), 3-2, but the Bobcats earned a split of the Eastern States Athletic Conference doubleheader when they capitalized on four extra-base hits and four Salisbury errors for an eight-run fourth inning on their way to a 10-4 decision.

Lacrosse

Linda Moscato (Fallston) had three goals and Jenn Murphy (Severna Park) two goals and two assists, as Frostburg State (14-1) edged Georgetown (3-13), 7-6, for the championship of the 19th annual Maryland Colleges Women's Lacrosse Association at Goucher.

The University of Maryland (12-2) scored 17 goals for the second successive game, as eight goal-scorers helped beat the University of Pennsylvania, 17-1, in Philadelphia.

* Tournament Most Valuable Player Dennis Goldstein set two records, as top-ranked North Carolina (13-0) routed No. 4 Maryland (8-3), 18-8, in the ACC men's championship game at Duke Saturday night. The Tar Heels have won four straight ACC titles.

Goldstein scored a career-high six goals and had two assists t set two tournament records: most points in tournament (10) and most goals in a game (six).