O’Brien on World-Record Pace

After faltering in the discus and falling behind in his bid to break his world record in the decathlon, Dan O’Brien picked up enough steam to stand 14 points ahead of the pace with only the 1,500 meters remaining Wednesday in the USA-Mobil Track & Field Championships at Knoxville, Tenn.

O’Brien began the day 18 points ahead of his world-record pace after the first five decathlon events, in which he compiled a world-best 4,738 points, but he fell 28 points behind after seven events.

One, the 110-meter hurdles, was no problem. He clocked 13.98 seconds, matching his time during his world-record performance at Talence, France, in September, 1992.

But his discus throw was only 152 feet, compared to 159-4 two years ago, and his seven-event total was 6,509 points, down from 6,537.

*

Tennis

Top-seeded and 11-time champion Martina Navratilova overcame blustery conditions and a slow start to beat Laura Golarsa, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, and advance to the quarterfinals of the Eastbourne grass-court tournament in England.

In other matches, seventh-seeded Lori McNeil was upset, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, by Kristine Radford and No. 5 Helena Sukova lost, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), to 45th-ranked Yayuk Basuki.

Fourth-seeded MaliVai Washington, victim of a poor service game, was beaten in the Manchester Open in England, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, by Karel Novacek.

Top-seeded Thomas Muster downed Marcelo Filippini, 7-6 (10-8), 6-1, to advance to thequarterfinals of the $325,000 OTV-Raifeisen tournament in St. Poelten, Austria.

Miscellany

Boise State officials met in Idaho with Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell and Joseph Crowley, president of the University of Nevada and the NCAA, about moving from I-AA to Division I-A sports.

Boise State is a member of the Division I-AA Big Sky Conference.