Johnson, Bailey to Decide the World’s Fastest Human

Michael Johnson and Donovan Bailey will settle the argument of who is the world’s fastest human, with the winner to get $1.5 million.

Like heavyweights hyping a title bout, the two Olympic sprint champions agreed Tuesday to a May race at the unconventional distance of 150 meters.

“It’s a great opportunity for track and field,” said Johnson, who exchanged barbs with Bailey at a news conference to confirm the long-rumored race between the world-record holders at 100 and 200 meters.

Each man will receive an appearance fee of $500,000, and the winner will earn an additional $1 million. The one-on-one race will be over a curved track; Bailey has been allocated the inside lane.

Promoters said they are still negotiating for a venue and an exact date. Toronto is among five North American cities in contention, but the others were not identified.

Tennis

Picking up where he left off a year ago, defending champion Boris Becker rewarded his fans with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the ATP World Championship at Hanover, Germany.

After six years in Frankfurt, where Becker celebrated two emotional victories in the ATP season-ending event, the tournament moved some 200 miles north to Hanover.

Earlier, Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek had 20 aces and defeated Michael Chang, 6-4, 6-4.

Goran Ivanisevic, Croatia’s king of aces, had 21 in beating Thomas Muster, 6-4, 6-4, in 51 minutes. Muster has seven titles this year, but the Austrian is better on clay and had no chance against Ivanisevic on the fast indoor surface.

There were no surprises when Sweden announced its squad for the Davis Cup final against France later this month.

Thomas Enqvist, Stefan Edberg, Nicklas Kulti and Jonas Bjorkman, the same players who beat the Czech Republic in the semifinals, were picked by captain Carl-Axel Hageskog.

Jurisprudence

Jose Lind, once a Gold Glove second baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates, was charged with drug and alcohol violations after leaving the scene of an accident, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Lind, 32, was “visibly drunk” and naked from the waist down Sunday when troopers pulled him over and found a gram of cocaine and seven cans of beer, said highway patrol Lt. Harry Mofield.

A man accused in the fatal 1993 shooting of former Dallas Cowboy kicker Colin Ridgway walked out of jail, while prosecutors said his trial may not be held at all. Instead of beginning proceedings Monday in Kenneth Bicking III’s capital murder trial, state District Judge Mark Nancarrow reduced his bail from $500,000 to $20,000.

Miscellany

Former England soccer coach Terry Venables confirmed he will take over the Australian national team with the immediate aim of qualifying for the 1998 World Cup. . . . Glenn “Mooch” Myernick, assistant coach of the 1996 U.S. Olympic soccer team, was hired as head coach of the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. . . . Backers of a planned $750-million domed stadium complex that would seat 110,000 people say they have closed a deal to buy 61.5 acres of prime downtown Las Vegas land for the project. If built, the stadium would be the biggest in the world and would host sporting events, conventions and other events in various configurations.

A former Formula One driver, Britain’s Jonathan Palmer, crashed head-on with a vehicle while testing a Honda passenger car on a mountain road in Lisbon, Portugal. The driver of the other car was killed and Palmer fractured his collarbone, arm and tailbone. . . . The International Olympic Committee announced that whitewater slalom canoe/kayak event has been dropped form the Sydney Olympic Games of 2000.