Johnson (43.75) Gets His Season Off to Fast Start

Olympic star Michael Johnson easily won his first race of the year Saturday, taking the 400 meters in 43.75 seconds in the Michael Johnson Open at Baylor University.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Johnson said. “I’m really in good shape for this early in the year, much better shape than I was at this time last year.”

The finish was just off Johnson’s personal best of 43.39, which he ran during the 1995 World Championships. During the Olympic Games in Atlanta last summer, he won the gold medal in 43.49, an Olympic record.

“What we saw today should have come four or five meets into the season,” coach Clyde Hart said. “He never ceases to amaze me.”

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Kevin Toth threw the shot 71 feet 2 1/2 inches, the best mark in the world this year, to highlight the final day of competition in the 72nd Kansas Relays at Lawrence.

Swimming and Diving

Veteran freestyler Claudia Poll of Costa Rica, short-course first-timer Jenny Thompson of the United States and the Chinese women’s team set world records in the World Short-Course Championships at Goteborg, Sweden.

Poll swam the 400-meter freestyle in 4:00.03, smashing the 10-year-old record of 4:02.05 set by Astrid Strauss of East Germany.

Thompson flashed to a 57.79 finish in the 100-meter butterfly, breaking the record set five months ago by another American, Misty Hyman.

In the women’s 400 freestyle relay, China prevailed by 0.14 seconds over Germany to set a record of 3:34.55.

P.J. Bogart upset Ventura’s Troy Dumais to win the men’s three-meter springboard title, and Lizzy Flynt, 17, won the women’s platform crown in the U.S. Spring National Diving Championships at Auburn, Ala.

Boxing

Frankie Liles successfully defended his World Boxing Assn. super-middleweight title, stopping Ecuador’s Segundo Mercado at 1:37 of the fifth round in Shreveport, La.

Liles improved to 30-1 with his 19th knockout.

International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins stopped John David Jackson of Los Angeles in the seventh round. Hopkins (31-2-1) knocked Jackson through the ropes in the sixth and seventh rounds.

Giovanni Parisi (34-2-1) landed an unanswered flurry of blows in the eighth round and stopped Harold Miller (30-10-1) to retain the World Boxing Organization super-lightweight title at Milan, Italy.

Tennis

Andre Agassi married actress Brooke Shields in Monterey, Calif., the Monterey County Herald reported.

Lionel Roux continued his surprising run by defeating Thomas Johansson, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, in the semifinals of the Japan Open at Tokyo. He will face second-seeded Richard Krajicek, who overcame Patrick Rafter’s acrobatic play with a big serve and booming returns in a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory. . . . Spaniards Albert Costa and Albert Portas face each other in the final of the Seat Godo Open at Barcelona after they defeated countrymen Carlos Moya and Alberto Berasategui in semifinals. . . . Stanford sophomore Ryan Wolters defeated Eric Taino to give the fifth-ranked Cardinal a 4-3 victory over No. 1 UCLA at Stanford.

Motor Sports

Rookie Steve Park put his name in the NASCAR Busch Series record book, winning the BellSouth Mobility-Opryland USA 320 at Nashville Speedway USA.

Park, in only his 12th career start, became the first rookie to win a Busch Series race since Johnny Benson Jr. at Dover in September 1994.

Michael Ewanitsko led the last 104 laps and won the Goody’s 200 in the return of the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour to Martinsville, Va., Speedway after five years. . . . Jack Sprague won the pole for the Chevy Trucks Desert Star Classic at Phoenix International Raceway.

Miscellany

Walk-on Jahi Johnson ran for a pair of short touchdowns and junior college transfer Jabari Jackson added a one-yard scoring run to highlight USC’s intrasquad scrimmage at Howard Jones Field.

Bill Egan, who has directed the American men’s downhill ski program to unprecedented success in the 1990s, was selected coach of the U.S. Ski Team men’s alpine team.

Funeral services were scheduled today at Green Bay, Wis., for Kevin Belcher, a former NFL offensive lineman who played at Wisconsin. Belcher died April 12 at age 35.