12/14/07 

SAN FRANCISCO -- Two sports figures accused of lying in a steroids probe were given trial dates for next spring at a hearing in federal court in San Francisco on Friday.U.S. District Judge Susan Illston scheduled a jury trial for March 24 for former championship cyclist Tammy Thomas.Thomas, 37, is accused of lying when she allegedly told a federal grand jury in San Francisco on Oct. 30, 2003, that she never received performance-enhancing drugs from chemist Patrick Arnold and that she never took anabolic steroids.

She faces three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice.Thomas, now a law student in Oklahoma, and her lawyer, Ethan Balogh, declined to comment outside of court after the brief hearing.Thomas won a silver medal in the World Track Cycling Championship in Belgium in 2001. She was banned from competition for life in 2002 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after she tested positive for an anabolic steroid called norbolethone.