Gebrselassie Sets Record in 10,000 at Bislett Games

Haile Gebrselassie broke the 10,000-meter world record in 26 minutes 31.32 seconds in the Bislett Games Grand Prix track and field meet Friday at Oslo.

After the 24-year-old Ethiopian trimmed almost seven seconds off the previous record, Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj missed the world mile mark by only .51 of a second, winning in 3:44.90.

The pacesetters dropped out early in the 10,000, leaving Gebrselassie to race the clock with about 6,000 meters remaining. But the near sellout crowd of about 20,000 helped support him.

“It wasn’t easy,” said Gebrselassie, who will receive a $50,000 bonus for the record. “I was a little afraid when the pacemakers left after 4K. But the fans helped me. They were in front of me.”

The previous record (26:38.08) was set by Salah Hissou of Morocco last year at Brussels. In other events, American Allen Johnson and Australian Cathy Freeman had world seasonal bests. Johnson won the 110-meter hurdles in 13.14. The 1995 world and 1996 Olympic champion, Johnson had recorded the previous fastest time in 1997 of 13.17 Wednesday at Lausanne, Switzerland.

Freeman, the Olympic silver medalist, won the women’s 400 in 49.39. Canada’s Donovan Bailey, the 100-meter Olympic champion and world-record holder, switched to the 200 and won in a wind-aided 20.14.

Hockey

The Kings are near an agreement with defenseman Garry Galley, an unrestricted free agent, and will announce his signing perhaps as early as today, a club source confirmed.

Galley, 34, began his career with the Kings and played for them from 1984-85 until Feb. 14, 1987. He had four goals and 38 points and a plus 10 plus/minus ratio with the Buffalo Sabres last season. For his career, he has 496 points in 889 games. A left-handed shooter, Galley is expected to fill the role of power-play quarterback, a need General Manager Dave Taylor has said is a priority. The source said Galley and Taylor have had “very solid conversations,” that have made a formal announcement merely “a matter of getting his signature on paper.”

Jurisprudence

Bernard Tapie was sentenced to 18 months in jail for siphoning money from the championship soccer team he once owned.

Tapie, a bankrupt French businessman and a former Cabinet minister, already is in jail for bribing players to throw a game against his Olympique Marseille team. His eight-month term in that case ends in October.

An arrest warrant has been issued for a Reno-area youth baseball coach in connection with the sexual assault of a teenage player. Washoe County sheriff’s deputies were searching for Guy Mills, 29, of Reno, who’s accused of four counts of sexual assault in the warrant.

Miscellany

Rod Millen of Huntington Beach took the Unlimited Class and overall championship at the 75th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, completing the 12.42-mile course in 10 minutes 4.54 seconds in his Toyota Celica.

NASCAR goes prime time with a fourth event in 1998 as officials at Daytona International Speedway said next year’s Pepsi 400 will be run at night.

U.S. crews excelled at the Henley Royal Regatta in England. Augusta Sculling Center became the favorite to win the Queen Mother Cup for quadruple sculls by beating Melbourne University of Australia.

The University of Washington varsity eight began competition in the Ladies’ Plate with a display of power in beating Melbourne. Three U.S. university crews won in the Temple Challenge Cup. Harvard’s lightweights beat University College of Dublin, Washington’s junior varsity defeated Cambridge’s lightweights, and Penn’s freshmen beat Durham’s second crew.

Sirimongkol Singmanassak of Thailand had little trouble in his 12-round unanimous decision over Mexico’s Victor Rabanales, retaining his World Boxing Council bantamweight title at Bangkok, Thailand.

Unseeded Lindsay Lee of Atlanta breezed past second-seeded Jolene Watanabe of Glendora, 6-3, 6-1, in the quarterfinals of the USTA Challenger at the National Tennis Center in New York.

Predrag Danilovic scored 21 points to lead Yugoslavia to a 75-60 victory over Lithuania in the quarterfinals of the European Basketball Championships at Barcelona, Spain. Yugoslavia will play Greece in the semifinals. Greece eliminated Poland, 72-62. Also advancing were Russia and Italy.

Medicine Man gained 106 miles on Salsipuedes in the Transpac yacht race from California to Hawaii. At that rate, the two boats would reach the Diamond Head finish line at about the same time.