U.S. Olympic rowing team has Philadelphia flavor

The final roster for the U.S. Olympic rowing team announced yesterday includes five Philadelphia-area rowers, including Paul Teti from Upper Darby, who will be competing in his third Summer Games.

Teti, in the lightweight four in 2000 and 2004, will compete this time in the men's four. Tom Paradiso of Blue Bell is in the lightweight men's four. Marcus McElhenney of Lansdowne is coxswain for the men's eight, Renee Hykel of Haverford is in the lightweight women's double scull, and Susan Francia of Abington is in the women's eight.

Rowing in the Olympics begins Aug. 9 and runs through Aug. 17. The finals are set for Aug. 16-17.

Blood testing.

Swimmers and track-and-field athletes will be blood tested at the Olympic trials - a first at the trials - as part of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's ramped-up program to catch drug cheats.

Track and field.

With one brilliant burst, Marshevet Hooker put her name alongside those of Florence Griffith-Joyner, Marion Jones and Evelyn Ashford.

Hooker ran a wind-aided 10.76 seconds to win her 100-meter quarterfinal last night at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, tying her with former world-record-holder Ashford as the fifth-fastest woman in all conditions.

Torri Edwards won her heat in a wind-aided 10.85, while Carmelita Jeter advanced by winning her heat in 10.97. Allyson Felix, hoping to compete in four events in China, was second to Jeter in 10.98, and 2004 Olympic silver medalist Lauryn Williams finished behind Hooker in 10.86.

Hooker also had the fastest time of the opening round yesterday, a wind-aided 10.94.

Chryste Gaines, who clocked 11.15 in the first round, finished seventh in the quarterfinals. She was back from her suspension stemming from the Bay Area Laboratory co-operative investigation.

The 100 semifinals and final are today.

In the first event of the meet,

Hyleas Fountain

broke

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

's decade-old U.S. record in the heptathlon 100-meter hurdles.

Fountain, a two-time national champion in the heptathlon, clocked 12.65, eclipsing Joyner-Kersee's mark of 12.69. She also bested Joyner-Kersee's Olympic trials record of 12.71 from 1988, and Joyner-Kersee's U.S. national championship record of 12.77 from 1991.