Ahead by Six, Els Likes Chances

With greens slick from three days of heat, wind and sun--and with more of the same forecast for today--Ernie Els likes his chances in the Buick Classic at the Westchester Country Club course in Rye, N.Y.

With a six-shot lead over Tim Herron after shooting a two-under-par 69 Saturday for a 54-hole score of 13-under 200, those chances look even better.

“It will make it harder for the guys to come after you, for someone to come out of the pack and make a 62 or a 63,” Els said. “It’ll be really hard for someone to do that if the course stays the same.”

Still, the six-stroke lead tied that of Greg Norman at the Masters for the largest after three rounds this year on the U.S. tour. Els said Norman’s collapse has made a six-stroke lead no longer seem insurmountable.

“You’ve got to think of everybody as even and go out and try to beat the field again,” Els said. “If I go out there and try and protect my lead I might start playing defensive.”

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Tom Weiskopf’s five-under-par 67 in the second round and 36-hole total of nine-under 135 gave him a three-shot lead over Bob Eastwood in the Pittsburgh Senior Classic.

Weiskopf was able to shake off an opening-hole bogey, making seven birdies and one bogey the rest of the way.

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Tracy Hanson shot a nine-under-par 63, the best round of her career, and took a two-stroke lead over Pat Bradley after three rounds of the LPGA Oldsmobile Classic in East Lansing, Mich.

Hanson, 24, who has never won on the LPGA Tour, had five birdies in a row and nine for the round.

Running

Tegla Loroupe overcame interference by a late-race male intruder, with the help of former distance runner turned television announcer Marty Liquori, and won the all-women’s Advil Mini Marathon in New York.

With about two-tenths of a mile remaining in the 6.2-mile (10-kilometer) race through Central Park, an unidentified man broke onto the course and began running alongside the 23-year-old Kenyan.

The intruder ran with her for about 50-60 yards before Liquori jumped out of his TV car, grabbed the man and forcefully escorted him off the course.

Loroupe recovered well enough to win in 32 minutes, 13 seconds--17 seconds faster than her winning time in 1993.

Soccer

There were 23 arrests, most for being drunk or scalping tickets, and fans generally behaved themselves at Wembley Stadium in north London, where police on hooligan alert weren’t needed and Switzerland scored an upset, tying England, 1-1, in the opening game of the European Cup.

Auto Racing

Kenny Bernstein recorded the quickest elapsed time in National Hot Rod Assn. history to claim the No. 1 spot in Top Fuel qualifying at the 32nd annual Pontiac Excitement Nationals at National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio.

Bernstein covered the quarter-mile in 4.606 seconds at 313.15 mph to join John Force (funny cars) and Chuck Harris (pro stock) in division qualifying.

In his 82nd Indy car race, Scott Pruett won his first pole position, turning a lap of 105.920 for today’s ITT Automotive Detroit Grand Prix over the 14-turn, 2.1-mile Belle Isle road course.

Leaders Randy LaJoie and Hermie Sadler collided and spun on Lap 264, and Todd Bodine passed them and went on to win the Winston Motorsports 300 Busch Grand National race at South Boston, Va.

Dorsey Schroeder, driving a Ford Mustang, led wire-to-wire in winning the Motor City 100 SCCA Trans-Am race at Detroit’s Belle Isle. . . . David Empringham turned a lap of 95.565 mph to grab the pole for the PPG-Firestone Indy Lights Championship, a support race for today’s CART Indy car event at Belle Isle, Mich.

Max Papis of Italy set an International Motor Sports Assn. Exxon World SportsCar qualifying record, driving his Ferrari 333 on a 122.78-mph lap in preparation for today’s First Union Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Boxing

Frankie Liles (29-1) retained his World Boxing Assn. super-middleweight title at Newcastle, England, beating friend and fellow American Tim Littles (27-2) by a technical knockout at 2:58 of the third round.

On the same card, Britain’s Prince Naseem Hamed (22-0), knocked down for the first time as a professional in the first round, came back in the second to stop Puerto Rico’s Daniel Alicea (15-1) and retain his World Boxing Organization featherweight title.

Dariusz Michalczewki (31-0) was a winner by decision over France’s Christophe Girard and retained the WBO light heavyweight title in Cologne, Germany.

Miscellany

Butch Soper beat Walter Ray Williams Jr., 226-210, to win the Pro Bowlers’ Assn. National Championship in Toledo, Ohio.

David Klingler, who lost his starting quarterback job in Cincinnati to a third-teamer, Jeff Blake, has signed a contract to back up Jeff Hostetler and Billy Joe Hobert with the Oakland Raiders.

Princeton, which came up just short a year ago, pulled ahead of the Pennsylvania boat in the first 500 meters and held on to win its first men’s varsity eight title at the National Collegiate Rowing Championships in Bantam, Ohio.

The women’s varsity eight title went to Brown, which edged three-time champion Princeton by 3.6 seconds.

Shaamit, a 12-1 shot ridden by Michael Hills, won the 217th English Derby at Epsom, beating 9-2 favorite Dushyantor by a length in the 1 1/2-mile event. Alex Greaves, the first female jockey in the event, finished last on the filly Portuguese Lil.

Names in the News

James “Bruiser” Flint, who been been an assistant at Massachusetts, was named to replace John Calipari as the Minutemen’s basketball coach. . . . Greg LeMond was inducted into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in Trexlertown, Pa.