Jacobs Uses Eagles to Take Lead

John Jacobs shot a three-under-par 69 Saturday to take a one-stroke lead in the $800,000 Franklin Quest Championship at Park City, Utah.

Jacobs stands at 10-under 135 after 36 holes in the Senior Tour event and goes into the final round with a one-stroke lead over Australian Graham Marsh and Jack Kiefer on the windy course.

First-round leader Gary Player shot a 74 and fell four strokes back.

Jacobs, who trailed Player by one stroke after the first round, continued his assault on the course’s short par-fives, making two eagles Saturday. He birdied all four in Friday’s first round.

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Kris Tschetter shot a career-best nine-under-par 63 to take a one-stroke lead over Denise Killeen after the first round of the Rail Classic at Springfield, Ill.

Tschetter, one stroke off the tournament record set by Laura Davies in the first round of the 1992 event, had an eagle, nine birdies and two bogeys.

Killeen, who has missed the cut in 11 of 17 events this year, also took advantage of the receptive greens for her best round in five years on the tour.

Tracy Kerdyk and Helen Dobson were three back along with Japan’s Nayumi Hirase and Hiromi Kobayashi.

Boxing

Britain’s Naseem Hamed knocked down Manuel Medina of Mexico three times, stopping him after 11 rounds to remain undefeated and retain his World Boxing Organization featherweight title.

Hamed (23-0 with 21 KOs), dropped the former world champion in the second round and twice in the ninth in the scheduled 12-rounder at Dublin, Ireland.

It was the first time in seven years the durable but light-hitting Medina (52-8) failed to go the distance.

In other fights at Dublin, Nate Miller (29-4) of Philadelphia defended his World Boxing Assn. cruiserweight title, stopping James Heath (8-4-2) of Monroe, N.C., with six seconds remaining in the seventh round; and Tom “Boom Boom” Johnson (44-2-1) retained his International Boxing Federation featherweight title with a unanimous decision over Venezuela’s Ramon Guzman.

Soccer

Azerbaijan upset Switzerland, 1-0, and Ireland and Wales began their bids to reach the 1998 World Cup with high-scoring victories.

Wales beat San Marino, 6-0, and the Irish defeated Liechtenstein, 5-0. Also, Portugal and Armenia played a scoreless tie.

Vidadi Rzayev scored Azerbaijan’s goal against a Swiss team playing under new Coach Rolf Fringer in a Group 3 game.

Welsh strikers Dean Saunders and Mark Hughes each scored twice against San Marino at Cardiff, and Niall Quinn scored twice for the Irish at Liechtenstein.

In a Group 9 game at Yerevan, Armenia, a Portuguese penalty kick with five minutes remaining hit the post and left the game scoreless.

Motor Racing

Terry Labonte ended a 16-year drought at Darlington (S.C.) International Raceway by holding off pole-sitter Mark Martin over the final 33 laps to win the Dura-Lube 200 Saturday. The victory in the NASCAR Busch Grand National tuneup to the Southern 500 ended Martin’s dominance at the track. He had won the race three times in a row, and five months ago had taken the spring race at the tricky egg-shaped oval.

Labonte, the Winston Cup points leader, had won only once at Darlington, in the 1980 Southern 500, the first of his 17 Winston Cup victories. His losing streak covering both divisions at Darlington had reached 37 races.

Miscellany

It took three heats, but the filly Continentalvictory beat the boys for the third time in a major stakes, winning the $535,000 World Trotting Derby at the DuQuoin Fairgrounds at DuQuoin, Ill.

She won the second heat after finishing fourth in the first and then beat Kramer Boy in the winners-only final.

Continentalvictory, driven by Mike Lachance, has won the first two legs of the trotting triple crown, the Yonkers Trot and the Hambletonian. She will try to become the first filly to win any horse racing triple crown when she takes on the colts again in the Kentucky Futurity at the Red Mile in Lexington, Ky., on Oct. 4.

Felicia Ballanger of France, already a gold medalist in the women’s sprint competition, won her second gold medal of cycling’s World Championships in the 500-meter time trial at Manchester, England.