Torrence, Johnson Win Sprints

Gwen Torrence and Michael Johnson proved they’re still the best in their sprints. Carl Lewis couldn’t make the same claim.

Torrence, the top female short sprinter in the world, won the 60 and 200 meters Saturday at the USA Mobil Indoor Championships at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome in front of a crowd of 20,173. Johnson, the world’s No. 1 long sprinter among the men, destroyed a powerful field in the 400 for his 51st straight finals victory.

But Lewis, once the top sprinter in the world, finished last in his preliminary heat of the 60 meters.

Torrence won the 60 in 7.05 seconds, then smashed the American record for the second consecutive day with a time of 20.33 in the 200.

Johnson blazed to victory in 44.66.

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Azusa Pacific won the men’s title with a score of 91 at the NAIA Indoor Championships at Lincoln, Neb.

Pro Football

Rodney Hampton, the New York Giants’ all-time leading rusher, signed a six-year, $16.45 million offer sheet with the San Francisco 49ers. Reports in New York this past week indicated the Giants will match and retain Hampton.

The Philadelphia Eagles have won their bid for to take free agent cornerback Troy Vincent away from the Miami Dolphins, according to published reports.

The Dolphins decided late Friday not to match the Eagles’ five-year, $16.5 million offer sheet for Vincent, The Miami Herald and The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The Giants, attempting to replace the departed Jumbo Elliott, have tendered an offer sheet to Dallas Cowboy offensive lineman Ron Stone, a restricted free agent. The offer is reportedly worth close to $10 million over five years. Dallas has seven days to match the offer. . . . The Jacksonville Jaguars signed Cleveland Browns wide receiver Keenan McCardell, an unrestricted free agent.

Gila River Indian Tribe spokeswoman Carole Jackson confirmed that representatives of the 11,500-member tribe and the Arizona Cardinals have been meeting for about two months to discuss building a stadium on a 500-acre site near the tribe’s Wild Horse Pass Casino.

Winter Sports

Luc Alphand of France won the men’s World Cup downhill title when a race at Hakuba, Japan was cancelled Sunday for the third day in a row because of bad weather.

Alphand has 532 points against 359 for his closest rival, Patrick Ortleib of Austria, an insurmountable lead with one more downhill event remaining.

Deborah Compagnoni got her first victory of the season by winning a giant slalom at Narvik, Norway. Compagnoni led the first Italian sweep in a women’s World Cup race with Sabina Panzanini finishing second and Isolde Kostner third.

Manuela Di Centa beat fellow Italian Stefania Belmondo by 10.7 seconds in a 10-kilometer World Cup freestyle cross-country ski race at Lahti, Finland.

Japan’s Hiroyasu Shimizu set a new standard of 35.39 seconds in the men’s 500 meters at the World Cup speed skating finals at Calgary, improving on the previous mark of 35.76 set by American Dan Jansen in 1994. The world record in the 1,500 meters was beaten by five skaters with Hiroyuki Naoke the fastest of them all at one minute, 50.61 seconds.

Boxing

South African Thulane “Sugar Boy” Malinga got even for a disputed loss almost four years ago by taking Nigel Benn’s World Boxing Council super middleweight title on a 12-round split decision at Newcastle, Eng.

In another bout on that card, American Tom Johnson overcame a first-round knockdown by Ever Beleno, and stopped the Colombian in the 12th round to retain his International Boxing Federation featherweight title.

Tennis

Goran Ivanisevic reached his fifth ATP Tour final of the year, overcoming French veteran Guy Forget in a dramatic third-set tiebreaker at the Italian Indoors at Milan to win, 6-7 (1-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-4). Ivanisevic’s opponent in today’s final will be eighth-seeded Marc Rosset, who defeated defending champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, in the other semifinal.

Jim Courier continued his march through the U.S. Indoor at Philadelphia by trouncing Mark Woodforde, 6-2, 6-1, to reach the finals.

Sabine Appelmans of Belgium and Julie Halard of France won semifinal round matches in the Linz tournament at Linz, Austria. Appelmans beat Helena Sukova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 7-5. Halard eliminated Russia’s unseeded Yelena Makarova, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Gymnastics

Kerri Strug defeated two former Olympic champions, Svetlana Boguinskaia of Belarus and Oksana Chusovitina of Ubekistan, to capture her first international title at the American Cup at Fort Worth.

In the men’s competition, John Roethlisberger of Minneapolis defended his American Cup title.

Auto Racing

For only the second time in the 17-year history of Championship Auto Racing Teams, time trials will be held the day of a race. That was mandated by a rainout of qualifying Saturday for Marlboro Grand Prix drivers at Metro Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex at Homestead, Fla.

Jeff Purvis passed Joe Nemechek with seven laps left and won the Hardee’s 250 at Richmond, Va.

Names in the News

Col. Randall W. Spetman took over as athletic director at the Air Force Academy, replacing Col. Ken Schweitzer.