Marsh, Johnson Have Spirit of ’96 With Victories Over Strong Fields

Americans Mike Marsh and Michael Johnson defeated star-studded fields Wednesday in winning sprints at a Grand Prix track meet in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Marsh, the 1992 Olympic 200-meter gold-medal winner, surged in the final strides to win the 100 in a slightly wind-aided 9.96 seconds. Donovan Bailey of Canada was second in 10.02 and American Dennis Mitchell was third in 10.03.

Johnson, the winner of the 200 and 400 at the U.S. national championships last month, won the 200 in a wind-aided 19.96 seconds over a field that included 1993 world 200 champion Frankie Fredericks, Linford Christie and Carl Lewis.

In other events, Americans Roger Kingdom won the 110 hurdles in 13.11, and Darnell Hall won the 400 in 44.34. Merlene Ottey of Jamaica won the women’s 100 in 10.92, the fastest legal time of the year. She also won the 200 in 22.07, just beating Gwen Torrence.

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Daniela Bartova improved her own pole-vault record, clearing 13 feet 7 1/4 inches at the Czech Republic national championships in Ostrava, the news agency CTK reported.

Jurisprudence

A cousin of Seattle Seahawk wide receiver Brian Blades was shot to death at the player’s home in Plantation, Fla., and Blades was in the same room of the condominium at the time, police said.

Paramedics pronounced Charles Blades, 24, of Opa-locka, Fla., dead of a gunshot wound from a pistol shortly after police received a report of a shooting at 12:39 a.m. Thursday.

“Right now we’re going on the assumption it was an accident,” Plantation police Sgt. Mike Price told the Miami Herald. “We do believe the gun belonged to Brian.”

Drew Rosenhaus, Brian Blades’ agent, said the player was distraught over the shooting and could not make an interview with police Wednesday afternoon.

Jarrett Reid, a sixth-round draft choice of the Hartford Whalers in 1992, was acquitted of sexual assault after a two-week trial in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada.

Reid, who played eight games last season with Springfield of the American Hockey League, still faces another trial, to begin Sept. 5, on 20 charges lodged in a different complaint.

Basketball

Center Bill Cartwright has retired but will remain with the Seattle Sonics as a West Coast consultant.

Cartwright, 37, a 16-season NBA veteran, played on three championship teams with the Chicago Bulls. He had 12,713 points, 6,106 rebounds and a field goal percentage of 52.5%.

Don Nelson is expected to be hired by Friday as coach of the New York Knicks, the New York Times reported.

Golf

Liselotte Neumann, the second-ranked LPGA golfer last year, has received threats and played a one-day tournament this week in Stockholm with two police officers assigned to protect her, according to a published report.

Neumann has had police protection since being threatened by a 35-year-old man over a period of several years, the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported. The man has sent threatening letters and made obscene phone calls, it said.

Miscellany

Roberto Baggio, soccer’s world player of the year in 1993, left Juventus of Turin and signed a three-year contract with AC Milan, which will pay a transfer fee of about $12.5 million to Juventus.

Uruguay, which failed to qualify for last year’s World Cup, opened the America Cup with a 4-1 rout of Venezuela at Montivideo, Uruguay. The United States opens play Saturday against Chile at Paysandu.

A memorial service will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at St. Rose church in Roseville for Earlene McCabe, retired member of the California Horse Racing Board who died Sunday at 65.

HBO sports, making a second effort within 10 years to produce a universally acknowledged world heavyweight boxing champion, is negotiating with eight fighters for a big-money tournament to start in October.

The cable television network, which lost out to rival Showtime in the bidding for Mike Tyson’s comeback bout, would bring together Riddick Bowe, Lennox Lewis, George Foreman, Michael Moorer, Evander Holyfield, Herbie Hide, Ray Mercer and Tommy Morrison.

San Jose has been recommended from among nearly two dozen cities as host for the 1999 women’s basketball Final Four and Philadelphia has been recommended for 2000. The NCAA Executive Committee will be asked to approve the recommendations at its regularly scheduled meeting Aug. 2-4.

The Buffalo Stampede, defending champion of Roller Hockey International, has filed for bankruptcy and may fold at midseason.