Morceli Barely Misses 3,000 World Record

Noureddine Morceli of Algeria missed the world record in the 3,000 meters by less than 0.5 seconds Saturday at the Herculis Grand Prix meet at Monte Carlo.

Morceli was timed in 7 minutes, 29.24 seconds, off the world mark of 7:28.96 set by Kenya’s Moses Kiptanui last year. It was the second-best performance in the history of the event. Morceli, the world record-holder in the 1,500, also ran the second-fastest 1,500 earlier this year in 3:29.20.

Samuel Matete of Zambia, the 1991 world champion, beat Olympic gold medalist Kevin Young for the second time in four days in the 400 hurdles. Matete overtook Young in the final stretch to win in 47.94.

Jon Drummond beat former world record-holder Leroy Burrell in the 100 in 10.05. Burrell was runner-up in 10.12.

Sergei Bubka of Ukraine won the pole vault at 19 feet, 5 3/4 inches. He failed in three attempts at 20-1 3/4, a world record.

Gwen Torrence, the Olympic 200 champion, moved up to the 400 and won in 49.83, the fastest time of the year.

Merlene Ottey of Jamaica won the women’s 100 in a 1993 world-best 10.90 into a slight wind. It also was her personal best.

Olympic 100-meter champion Gail Devers won the 100 hurdles in 12.77.

Auto Racing

Nigel Mansell, the Formula One champion and Indy car rookie, won the pole for today’s New England 200 at Loudon, N.H., with a lap at 169.247 m.p.h. in his Lola-Ford.

Points leader Bryan Herta of Los Angeles continued his charge toward the Firestone Indy Lights Championship by setting a track record to win the pole in qualifying for today’s race, also at Loudon. Herta had an average speed of 149.330 m.p.h.

Scott Sharp led all the way in the SCCA Trans-Am race at Watkins Glen, N.Y., winning for the fourth time this season.

Miscellany

Reggie Lewis was eulogized by friends and family during a memorial service at the Baltimore high school where he first exhibited the talent that made him a basketball star.

Lewis, the Boston Celtics’ captain, died of a heart attack on July 27 after shooting baskets at Brandeis University in suburban Boston. He was 27.

Steve Jaros won the $250,000 PBA Choice Hotels Summer Classic at Edmond, Okla., for the second time in three years. He won the first title match requiring a two-frame rolloff in more than two years. After tying top-seeded Kevin McGerr at 224, Jaros rolled two consecutive strikes to win the rolloff, 49-36.

German freestyler Franziska van Almsick won her fifth gold medal and American-born Spaniard Martin Lopez-Zubero avenged a rare defeat at the European Swimming Championships at Sheffield, England.

Van Almsick, 15, swam the final leg in the 400-meter medley relay, leading the German women past Russia by more than three seconds.

Martin-Zubero, who lost to Russia’s Vladimir Selkov in the 200 backstroke Friday, beat Selkov in the 100, winning in a meet record 55.03 seconds.

Troy Dumais of Ventura won the gold medal in the 13-and-under boys’ platform event during the fourth day of the National Junior Olympic Diving Championships at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Aquatics Center. Dumais, 13, also won a gold Thursday in the three-meter springboard and will try for another medal this morning in the one-meter springboard.

Names in the News

Jim Finks, former president and general manager of the New Orleans Saints, was in stable but serious condition after undergoing emergency surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain. . . . Magic Johnson scored 49 points to lead a team of former NBA stars over a group of former college players, 160-158, in a charity exhibition game in Memphis, Tenn. Anfernee Hardaway led the college squad with 31 points. . . . Tex Hughson, a former All-Star pitcher who clinched the 1946 pennant for the Boston Red Sox, died Friday at 77.