Little Wins 200-Meter Sprint, Says Color of Skin Is No Issue

When Kevin Little crossed the finish line first in the 200 meters at the World Indoor track and field championships at Paris on Saturday, he had to answer questions about his race.

Little is white.

“I realize I’m a white man, but I’m trying to be the fastest sprinter in the world, not the fastest white man,” said Little, 28, after tying the American record of 20.40 seconds. “The way I see it, a man won the 200. It doesn’t matter what color.”

Little’s win was the first by a white American sprinter in a major international meet--Olympics or World Championships--since 1956 when Bobby Morrow swept the 100 and 200, and ran on the winning 400-meter relay team at the Melbourne Games.

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Mary Slaney, 38, finished second in her heat at 1,500 meters to qualify for the finals of the World Indoor championships.

Slaney, who won the 1,500- and 3,000-meter titles in the 1983 world outdoor championships in Helsinki, Finland, finished behind Patricia Djate-Taillard of France on Saturday, Djate-Taillared overtaking Slaney just before the final lap. Djate-Taillard was timed in 4 minutes 9 seconds, Slaney in 4:10.37.

The other American 1,500-meter runner, Suzi Hamilton, also placed second in her heat, to veteran Russian Yekaterina Podkopayeva, 44.

Golf

Armed with only their clubs, golfers were often helpless in their battle against Miami’s Blue Monster.

The Blue Monster golf course at the Doral-Golf Resort & Spa, site of the Doral-Ryder Open, swallowed up golf ball after golf ball in its 118 bunkers.

And that wasn’t the worst of it. A devilish crosswind blowing across those bunkers created a sandstorm at times.

As a result, David Duval emerged from the chaos as the third-round leader despite getting only three pars. He did manage nine birdies in shooting a 70 that put him at 12-under-par 204.

Nick Price is second by a stroke.

Tennis

Unseeded Czech Daniel Vacek upset top-seeded Goran Ivanisevic, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), in the semifinals of the ABN AMRO tournament at Rotterdam, Netherlands .

Second-seeded Dutchman Richard Krajicek won the other semifinal, beating third-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 6-4.

Australian Mark Philippoussis advanced to his first ATP Tour final of the year with a 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 victory over Chris Woodruff in the semifinals of the Franklin Templeton Tennis Classic at Scottsdale, Ariz.

Winter Sports

Utah successfully defended its NCAA ski championship at Craftsbury, Vt., and Thorodd Bakken of Vermont won the 20-kilometer race in one of the closest finishes in the event’s history. Bakken’s margin of victory in defending his NCAA title was less than a ski-boot length over fellow Norwegian Rune Kollerud of Utah.

Bjorn Dahlie of Norway won the 15-kilometer cross-country race at the Swedish Nordic Ski Games at Gronklitt, Sweden to clinch his fifth World Cup overall title.

Dahlie, who won three gold medals at the World Nordic Ski Championships, has won six World Cup races this season and 36 in his career.

Michael von Gruenigen of Switzerland followed his world title in giant slalom with another World Cup victory at Shigakogen, Japan. Von Gruenigen’s aggregate time of 2 minutes 41.68 seconds enabled him to win his third championship in this season’s World Cup series.

Sven Fischer of Germany captured the World Cup biathlon in the 10-kilometer sprint at Nozawa Onsen, Japan, winning by a whopping 45 seconds at a 1998 Olympic venue.

Fischer and World Cup overall champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway each hit all 10 targets at the shooting range. But Fischer moved faster over the slushy snow to finish at 28 minutes, 59.5 seconds.

In the women’s 7 1/2-kilometer sprint, two-time defending world champion Olga Romasko of Russia won her first World Cup title by hitting all 10 targets from both the standing and prone positions and finishing in 22:37.5.

Marianne Timmer and Rintje Ritsmaa of the Netherlands won two of the four gold medals contested in the World Speedskating Single Distance Championships held at Warsaw, Poland.

Jurisprudence

Banned from the NBA for drug and alcohol use, Roy Tarpley is now accused of public intoxication after law officers found the former Dallas Maverick passed out in his car Thursday in Dallas.

Reggie Rogers, a former defensive lineman for the University of Washington and the Detroit Lions, was found guilty of drunken driving in Seattle.

Rogers previously served a year in jail for causing the deaths of three teen-agers in a 1988 traffic accident in Pontiac, Mich.

Auto Racing

Mark Martin won the Stihl Outdoor Power Tools 300 in Hampton, Ga., giving the stock car driver three consecutive NASCAR Busch Grand National Series victories.

Women’s Basketball

Taj McWilliams scored 20 points and grabbed two key rebounds in the final minutes at Richmond, Va., to lead the Richmond Rage to a 72-67 victory over the Columbus Quest and a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-five American Basketball League championship series.