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Death of Gathers’ Cousin Probed

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From Staff and Wire Reports

Early indications are that Joseph Marable, 17, of Philadelphia, the cousin of late Loyola Marymount basketball star Hank Gathers, died on the basketball court of a severe asthma attack.

Meanwhile, the doctor whose name appears on a medical form clearing Marable to play basketball denies signing the form or examining the teen before team tryouts began. Marable died Tuesday after collapsing in the gymnasium of William Penn High during tryouts. He was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital 1 1/2 hours later.

Sources in the medical examiner’s office said that preliminary tests indicate Marable died of an asthma attack, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

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Marable was the first cousin of Gathers, who died three years ago of heart failure after collapsing on the court during a game.

Tennis

Germany moved within one victory of clinching its third Davis Cup title when Michael Stich and Patrik Kuehnen beat Australia’s Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge in doubles at Duesseldorf.

The Germans won, 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series. Stich can deliver the title to Germany when he meets Richard Fromberg in the first of today’s singles matches.

If Fromberg upsets Stich, the No. 2 player in the world, the final match between Marc-Kevin Goellner and Jason Stoltenberg, who lost in five sets to Stich Friday, will decide the Cup champion.

Winter Sports

Michelle Kwan of Los Angeles rebounded from an aborted jump midway through her free skate to win the ladies’ singles title at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships at Colorado Springs, Colo.

Kwan, 13, followed the aborted jump with a successful triple Salchow and skated flawlessly the rest of the program. She completed five triple jumps to beat two-time Hungarian senior champion Krisztine Czako for the gold medal.

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Dan Jansen became the first speedskater to break 36 seconds for 500 meters, clocking a world record 35.92 in a World Cup meet at Hamar, Norway.

Jansen, a three-time Olympian, set the previous record of 36.02 last March indoors at Calgary.

World champion Kate Pace of Canada picked an early number and it paid off as she won the first women’s World Cup downhill race of the season at Tignes, France, edging Katja Seizinger of Germany.

Pace was timed in 1:16.56 on the 6,438-foot course with a drop of 1,886 feet.

The top American was Megan Gerety of Anchorage, Alaska, 17th in 1:17.41.

A World Cup men’s giant slalom was called off at Stoneham, Canada, because of thick fog.

Duncan Kennedy of Lake Placid, N.Y., won a silver medal in the opening luge World Cup at Sigulda, Latvia. Markus Schmidt of Austria won the two-heat event.

Boxing

Unbeaten Michael Moorer, the No. 1 heavyweight contender, tuned up for a possible title shot next year with a 10-round unanimous decision over journeyman Mike Evans at Reno.

Moorer (34-0) won every round from all three judges. Evans is 29-8-1.

On the undercard, unbeaten Kevin Kelley of New York survived a ninth-round knockdown and won the World Boxing Council featherweight title with a unanimous decision over champion Goyo Vargas of Mexico.

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Eloy Rojas of Venezuela won the World Boxing Assn. featherweight title on a 12-round split decision over South Korea’s Park Young-kyun at Seoul.

Golf

Nick Price continued his dazzling play in the Million Dollar Challenge, firing his second consecutive six-under-par 66 and taking a commanding 10-stroke lead after three rounds at Sun City, South Africa.

Curtis Strange shot a four-under-par 69 at Sydney, Australia, and leads by one in the Greg Norman Classic with a three-round total of 204.

The team of Mike Springer and Melissa NcNamara shot an eight-under 63 to claim a share of the lead after three rounds of the J.C. Penney Mixed-Team Classic at Tarpon Springs, Fla.

Swimming

China’s Guohong Dai set her third world record in the World Short Course Championship, winning the 100-meter breaststroke with a clocking of 1:06.58 at Palma De Mallorca, Spain. She broke the record of 1:07.05, set in 1986.

Kristine Quance, a USC swimmer from Northridge, won the women’s 200-meter breaststroke at the U.S. Open in Ann Arbor, Mich.

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Miscellany

Terry Bowden of Auburn was selected coach of the year by the Walter Camp Football Foundation. . . . Olympic gold medalists Jean Shirley Newhouse, Rod Milburn and Mac Wilkins, and two-time Olympic assistant coach Stan Wright became the newest members of the track and field Hall of Fame. . . . Jim Ballard threw an NCAA Division III playoff record eight touchdown passes as Mount Union turned a battle of unbeatens into a 56-8 rout of St. John’s of Minnesota at Alliance, Ohio, to advance to next week’s division title game. . . . Twenty-five runners in the New York City Marathon were disqualified, eight for failing to appear at video checkpoints along the route of the Nov. 14 race, race director Fred Lebow said.

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