McCumber Takes Lead in Canadian Open

Mark McCumber shot a five-under-par 67 to take a one-stroke lead Saturday over desperately scrambling Nick Price in the third round of the Bell Canadian Open at Oakville, Ontario.

Price’s various adventures on the Glen Abbey course included: Two shots that hit trees, two balls in the water, four bogeys, one of which was saved on a 20-foot putt.

But he also made eight birdies and escaped with a 68 that left him one back of McCumber’s leading 54-hole total of 206.

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Dave Eichelberger shot a five-under-par 67 to take a one-stroke lead over Graham Marsh after the second round of the Quicksilver Classic in Midway, Pa.

Eichelberger lined one off a tree on No. 15, but salvaged a par when the ball bounced out of trouble. On No. 18, his approach was headed for a bunker but skipped off a grassy mound and stopped 10 feet from the hole to set up a birdie.

Auto Racing

Paul Tracy won the pole position for the Texaco-Havoline 200 at Elkhart Lake, Wis., for the third consecutive year.

Tracy, a 25-year-old Canadian, broke the track qualifying record set Friday by Al Unser Jr. with his lap of 136.602 m.p.h.

Jacques Villeneuve made it an all-Canadian front row with a lap of 135.864, joining Nigel Mansell, who slipped from second to third at 135.829.

Jeff Burton, the leading rookie driver on the Winston Cup circuit, lost his ride for Saturday night’s Miller Genuine Draft 400 in Richmond, Va. when NASCAR officials disqualified his car.

Officials said a large number of holes had been illegally drilled in the Ford Thunderbird’s roll cage in an apparent attempt to make the car handle better in the turns.

NASCAR Winston Cup director Gary Nelson said officials were satisfied that Burton was unaware of the holes.

For the first time in 12 years, Jean Alesi earned Ferrari the pole position at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.

Alesi edged teammate Gerhard Berger by .13 seconds. Alesi turned the 3,604-mile course in 1 minute, 23.844 seconds, an average speed of 154.401 m.p.h.

Dorsey Schroeder charged from third to first in one lap to win the SCCA Trans-Am race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

Track and Field

Elana Meyer and Okkert Brits became the first South Africans in more than 30 years to win titles at a major international track and field competition.

Meyer won the women’s 10,000 meters with the fourth-fastest time in history, 30:52.51, and Brits took the pole vault, clearing 19-4 1/4 at the World Cup at Crystal Palace in London.

The South African breakthrough overshadowed another 1,500 victory by Noureddine Morceli of Algeria, a win by Antonio Pettigrew of the United States in the 400 and the 30th consecutive victory in the women’s 800 by Maria Mutola of Mozambique.

Dan O’Brien amassed 4,594 points to take the lead after the first five events of the decathlon at the Decastar meet in Talence, France.

Eduard Hamalainen of Belarus is second with 4,325 points. Sweden’s Henrik Dagard is third with 4,303.

In the heptathlon, Germany’s Heike Drechsler led with 3,964 points. Drechsler has not competed in the event since setting the world junior record in 1981.

Names in the News

British boxer Nigel Benn (39-2-1) retained his WBC super middleweight title with a unanimous decision in Birmingham, England over Juan Carlos Gimenez (43-7-3) of Paraguay. . . .Bob Myers, 87, former sports editor for the Associated Press in Los Angeles, died of natural causes in North Hollywood. Myers worked for AP for 35 years and was sports editor during the 1950s and 1960s. No services are scheduled. . . . Bill Cartwright, who won three NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls before becoming a free agent after last season, says he’s close to signing a multi-year contract with the Seattle SuperSonics. . . .Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes continued their dominance of beach volleyball by defeating Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh, 15-4, at the Old Spice Tournament of Champions in Cincinnati for their 16th title of the season. Kiraly and Steffes have won 56 of the last 72 events on the Association of Volleyball Professionals tour. . . .Top-ranked Arkansas lost its first cross country meet since 1991, finishing two points behind Kansas in the Jayhawk Invitational at Lawrence, Kan.