USA Boxing's judicial committee upheld the organization's decision to ban Luis Yanez from the Olympic team yesterday, leaving the light flyweight with just one more chance to make it to Beijing. Yanez is expected to appeal his punishment to an independent arbitrator this week, hoping for a decision before his eight teammates leave for China next week.

Yanez, a two-time U.S. champion who won a gold medal at the 2007 Pan-Am Games, was kicked off the roster July 1 for skipping more than three weeks of workouts last month at the team's residency training program in Colorado Springs. Coach Dan Campbell and USA Boxing CEO Jim Millman said they didn't hear from Yanez, who left June 4 for his native Duncanville, Texas, until shortly before they sent a formal letter setting a deadline for his return.

When Yanez finally got back in contact with his coaches, he was reluctant to say why he had missed workouts. He eventually claimed he was caring for his sister and her four children while she went through rehabilitation for an addiction to crack cocaine, but the team still barred Yanez from the U.S. Olympic Training Center.

Yanez retained a lawyer and requested an appeal hearing Friday in which he presented evidence that he claimed would show he had attempted to contact team officials during his absence. Yanez also asked for mercy from the judicial committee, claiming his absence didn't justify crushing his Olympic dreams.

Track and field

Javelin thrower Breaux Greer made the U.S. track and field team for the Beijing Olympics, joining Tyson Gay, Allyson Felix and Jeremy Wariner on the 126-member roster. Greer, an eight-time national champion, didn't qualify at the recent Olympic trials, finishing 17th and failing to reach the final round.

Greer hurt his shoulder while winning a bronze medal at last year's world championships and hadn't thrown in competition until the trials.

But USA Track & Field decided to place him on the team announced yesterday, citing a rule that allows for "the selection of an injured athlete who competed in the Olympic trials but not the final ... as long as another athlete is not displaced from the team."

• Angelo Taylor was more than a second off the season's best time but still won the 400 meters at the Vardinoyiannia meet in Rethymno, Greece.

Taylor -- qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in the 400 hurdles -- finished in 45.02 seconds, beating compatriot Bershawn Jackson by .45 of a second and Ato Stephens of Trinidad and Tobago by .49 of a second.

• Just one of Britain's three 100-meter athletes for Beijing was picked yesterday in London ahead of the outcome of Dwain Chambers' legal bid to overturn a lifetime doping ban. Chambers was an emphatic 10-second winner in Saturday's national trials, but runner-up Simeon Williamson is the only confirmed sprinter ahead of Thursday's injunction hearing against the British Olympic Association.

Elsewhere

Greece had an easy time before a home crowd in Athens yesterday and was joined by winners Croatia, New Zealand and Slovenia in a 12-nation basketball tournament that serves as a qualifier for the Beijing Olympics.

The other countries bidding for the three remaining Olympic berths are: Brazil, Canada, Germany and Puerto Rico.

Nine nations have already qualified for next month's Beijing Games, including the United States.