CYCLING

Pereiro gets yellow jersey to replace Landis

Oscar Pereiro finally got his hands on the winner's yellow jersey from the 2006 Tour de France on Monday.

"Finally, we have a winner and it's Oscar," Tour director Christian Prudhomme said at the handover ceremony in Madrid, Spain. "Oscar, you have won the Tour out on the road."

The Spaniard moved up from second to first after the disqualification of Floyd Landis for a doping violation.

"I have the feeling of arriving at the end of a thriller, after having spent 14 months thinking about it and not being able to concentrate as I should have on my job," Pereiro said. "It is essentially a kind of release."

The International Cycling Union formally declared Pereiro the winner on Sept. 21, one day after a U.S. arbitration panel voted 2-1 to remove the title from Landis for using synthetic testosterone during the Tour.

It's the first time in the race's 105-year history a winner has been stripped of the title.

COLLEGE SPORTS

Pederson fired as Nebraska AD

Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson was fired, two days after the school's once-mighty football team was rocked with its worst home loss in nearly a half-century.

Pederson, along with coach Bill Callahan, has been heavily criticized after a series of one-sided losses this season. The most recent was a 45-14 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday with former Cornhuskers coach Tom Osborne and his 1997 national title team in attendance.

Callahan's job is apparently safe for now. Chancellor Harvey Perlman said the next athletic director would decide the fate of the football staff.

AWARDS

Ochoa, Abbott year's top sportswomen

LPGA star Lorena Ochoa and former Tennessee softball pitcher Monica Abbott were selected Sportswomen of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation.

They were honored in New York along with figure skater Michelle Kwan and the Rutgers women's basketball team at the 28th annual Salute to Women in Sports.

tennis

Murray beats Stepanek at Madrid Masters

Andy Murray pressured Radek Stepanek into early errors before pulling away for a 6-4, 6-1 win on the opening day of the Madrid (Spain) Masters.

Golovin, Vaidisova reach second round at Zurich Open: Tatiana Golovin, who won her first two WTA Tour titles this season, beat Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the Zurich (Switzerland) Open.

MISCELLANEOUS

Wie loses second agent in two years

The losses for Michelle Wie keep piling up even though her LPGA Tour season is over. The latest came when her agent resigned after less than a year on the job.

Greg Nared, a former Nike business manager whom the William Morris Agency hired a year ago to manage Wie, resigned as vice president of golf. His announcement came one day after Wie finished 19th in a 20-player field at the Samsung World Championship.

Japan's boxing authority suspends Kameda for a year: Daiki Kameda was suspended for one year by Japan's boxing commission on Monday for his antics during last week's loss to champion Daisuke Naito in a WBC flyweight title match.

Kameda repeatedly grabbed Naito in Thursday's bout, lifting up the champion and throwing him to the canvas in a scene that resembled a wrestling match.