One Idea for Picking 2002 World Cup Final Site
South Korean soccer official Chung Mong-joon proposed Sunday that Japan and South Korea play a match to decide who plays host to the championship match of the 2002 World Cup finals.
A bitterly contested bidding campaign ended Friday, when FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, ruled the two share the event, but did not stipulate which country would stage the final.
“One way of solving that problem is that the two countries play a soccer match and let the winner get it,” said Mong-joon, head of the Korea Football Assn.
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In qualifying for the 1998 World Cup, Ecuador stunned Argentina, 2-0, getting a goal from Eduardo Hurtado of the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Senior Golf
John Bland won the third playoff hole with a bogey to beat John Paul Cain and capture the rain-soaked Bruno’s Memorial Classic at Birmingham, Ala., on the Senior PGA Tour.
Cain, who holed a long birdie putt at No. 18 in regulation to force the playoff, ended up in the rocks off the green on the third playoff hole and settled for a double-bogey.
With the pressure off, Bland could afford to botch his par putt, and a bogey was enough to claim his third career senior victory and second this season.
Track and Field
Britain’s Linford Christie recorded his second victory in two days, winning the 200 meters in 20.25 seconds at the European Cup competition in Madrid. It was Christie’s third double in a row in a European Cup meet.
Spain’s Roberto Parra set a European Cup record in the 800 meters with a time of 1:44.97, and in the 110 high hurdles Florian Schwarthoff of Germany (13.20) beat world record holder Colin Jackson of Britain (13.63).
Britain was beaten by Germany in the team competition, 142 points to 125. Italy was third with 110.
Beach Volleyball
Holly McPeak and Nancy Reno, playing in their first event together since mid-April, won the Evian Women’s Pro Beach Volleyball Tour stop at Austin, Texas.
Top-seeded McPeak and Reno defeated third-seeded Lisa Arce and Karolyn Kirby, 15-7, in the final of the $40,000 Austin Open.
McPeak and Reno, winning their 11th tour event, won two of three this season before playing with different partners at Puerto Rico, Hermosa Beach and San Diego.
Pro Football
Former Minnesota Viking linebacker Jack Del Rio, who was released this past winter because of knee problems, says he has agreed to a one-year contract with the Miami Dolphins.
Del Rio, 33, signed a two-year contract extension with the Vikings worth $3.2 million last season, but the former USC linebacker missed seven of the last eight games in the regular season after injuring his knee Oct. 30 against Chicago.
Names in the News
Jockey Shane Sellers suffered a broken right wrist at Churchill Downs when his mount in the third race, Commander Teddy, broke down in the turn, throwing the jockey head first to the track.
New York City prep basketball star Chudney Gray has been released from his national letter of intent by Manhattan College and will follow ex-Manhattan coach Fran Fraschilla to St. John’s. Gray, a guard, will have to sit out a year.
