A track and field official said that...

A track and field official said that South Africa will invite a contingent of American athletes to return next year for a second tour, although the country remains out-of-bounds for international competition.

Fourteen U.S. track and field athletes competed in a series of meets in South Africa in October. Three of the athletes were suspended indefinitely from national and international competition for breaking the sports boycott against South Africa. The remaining 11 face hearings next month and are expected to receive the same punishment.

Gert le Roux, director of the South African Amateur Athletics Union, said the members of this year’s American team will make up the nucleus of the squad expected to compete in South Africa in April.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation, the world governing body of track and field, suspended South Africa in 1976 in protest of the country’s policy of apartheid, or racial separation.