In Brief

TRACK AND FIELD

Olympic champion Merritt
suspended through July 2011

Olympic gold medalist LaShawn Merritt has been banned from track through July 2011 for using a banned substance found in an over-the-counter male enhancement product.

Merritt won the 400-meter Olympic title at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He accepted a provisional suspension earlier this year and received a 21-month suspension from arbitrators Monday.

The suspension is retroactive to last October, and he'll be eligible for the 2011 world championships in August.

The 24-year-old from Virginia tested positive for testosterone prohormones three times between October 2009 and January 2010.

He cooperated with doping authorities, and arbitrators took three months off the normal two-year ban for first-time offenders.

In finding Merritt's use of a product called Extenze, the arbitration panel wrote that Merritt's conduct "was exemplary and demonstrated tremendous character in making what had to be a painful and humiliating confession."

SOCCER

FIFA begins probing further
in World Cup bribery scandal

The World Cup corruption scandal widened when FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings against two executive committee members and said it also was investigating other officials and bidding countries.

FIFA ordered a formal ethics probe into allegations that two executive members offered to sell votes in the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The governing body urged its ethics committee to "act without delay" and "take all possible steps" in the investigation of Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti.

Adamu and Temarii both said that the hearings will be held Wednesday.

FIFA said the two officials could face "provisional measures," or suspension.

Adamu and Temarii were filmed by undercover reporters from London's Sunday Times newspaper asking for money for football-related projects.

FIFA said investigations also were under way into "other FIFA officials" who may have been involved.

Also: UNLV forward Ashleigh Shoughro was named Mountain West Conference offensive player of the week in women's soccer, the third time this season and the fifth time in her career that she's earned the honor.

Shoughro, a senior, had three goals, scoring the game winner in a 3-2 victory over Wyoming and netting two goals in a 3-0 win over Air Force.

Jose Manuel De La Torre was named coach of Mexico's men's national team.

The 44-year-old, who will leave his job at Mexican club Toluca, began his coaching career in 2006 and has won three Mexican league titles.

MISCELLANEOUS

Arm injury keeps boxer Briggs
in hospital after loss to Klitschko

Heavyweight Shannon Briggs is staying in a hospital in Hamburg, Germany, because of an injury to his left biceps from his weekend loss to Vitali Klitschko.

Briggs lost the WBC title fight by unanimous decision but did not go down despite being pounded by his Ukrainian opponent Saturday.

Also: Japan, led by defending all-around champion Kohei Uchimura, took the early lead in the men's team competition at the world gymnastics championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Japan finished with 361.400 points, followed by the United States second and Britain (357.033). Olympic champion China, Russia and Germany compete today. The men's team final is Thursday.

Two-time U.S. champion Jonathan Horton is second to Uchimura in the all-around standings.

The NHL suspended Phoenix Coyotes forward Shane Doan for three games following a blindside hit to the head of Anaheim's Dan Sexton.

Doan will lose more than $73,000 in salary as a result of the suspension, the NHL said.

Lance Armstrong has a new member on his team -- daughter Olivia Marie. The seven-time Tour de France winner tweeted early Monday that his daughter had arrived.

She is Armstrong's fifth child. The cycling star and girlfriend Anna Hansen had son Max in June 2009. Armstrong had three children with his ex-wife, Kristin.