Figg-Currier Birdies in Playoff to Get First LPGA Win

Cindy Figg-Currier made a three-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to beat Lorie Kane and Kris Tschetter on Monday and win the State Farm Rail Classic at Springfield, Ill.

Figg-Currier, who gained her first victory since joining the LPGA tour in 1983, shot a four-under-par 68 Monday and finished with a 16-under 200 total.

“It’s a great feeling to win because I’ve been on the tour so long,” Figg-Currier, 37, said. “You have to keep believing in yourself. I felt I was playing so well this year that the first win would happen.”

It was the third year in a row and fifth time in six years the Rail Classic ended in a playoff.

Figg-Currier, who won $90,000 with her first victory in 314 tournaments, set the tone in the playoff. After a 228-yard drive on the 376-yard 18th, she used a six-iron to land within three feet of the hole.

“I just kept playing my game plan,” Figg-Currier said. “I’m hitting a lot of greens.”

Tschetter, whose only LPGA victory came in 1992, made the playoff by shooting a final-round 64 and Kane, a second-year pro who has yet to win, closed with a 65.

Defending champion Michelle McGann shot a 72 and finished at 12-under 204.

Soccer

Diego Maradona spoke for the first time since the Argentine Football Assn. announced last Thursday that he had failed a drug test for the third time in his career.

Maradona said he has “no more energy to go on fighting” and claimed he was being persecuted by people who wanted to see him dead.

The AFA has said Maradona tested positive for “illegal substances” after a 4-2 victory over Argentinos Juniors in the season opener.

“This has been horrible. I give up,” said Maradona, who has not appeared in public since news of the positive test. “I had begun to believe again that the surname Maradona could return to where it should be.”

The AFA has temporarily banned Maradona, 36, from playing until results of a second test later this week are known. If he tests positive a second time, he could be banned for between one and five years, almost certainly signaling the end of his playing days.

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Zoltan Czibor, a 1952 Olympic gold medalist and one of Hungary’s all-time great players, died of prostate cancer in Budapest at age 68.

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Two Dutch hooligans were convicted of homicide and sentenced to four years in prison in the stabbing death of a man during a riot in Amsterdam in March between rival fans of Ajax Amsterdam and Feyenoord Rotterdam. Thirty-two other hooligans who took part in the riot were sentenced to up to six months in jail.

Auto Racing

Dale Earnhardt was released by a Florence, S.C., hospital and told by doctors not to drive until more tests can determine why he lost control of his car at the Southern 500 on Sunday.

Earnhardt hit the wall in Turn One and Turn Two right after the green flag dropped, then spent two laps trying to find pit road. The driver was rushed from the car and later taken to McLeod Regional Medical Center.

“I don’t know what happened,” Earnhardt, 46, said. “I feel great now.”

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Jim Head won the Top Fuel final in the U.S. Nationals at Clermont, Ind., beating Cory McClenathan with a quarter-mile run of 4.738 seconds at 300.00 mph.

McClenathan, of Anaheim, lost traction early in the run and finished in 5.333 seconds at 258.91 mph. The loss ended a four-race winning streak.

Rowing

Australia, seeking to make a major effort in time for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and Romania won heats in the men’s eights at the World Rowing Championships at France.

In the women’s eights, Romania, a solid favorite, won its heat and the United States took the other.

Gymnastics

Led by uneven bars Olympic and world champion Svetlana Chorkina, Russia took the lead over China and Romania in the qualifying round of the World Gymnastics Championships at Lausanne, Switzerland.

Miscellany

Tami Purcell became the first female jockey to win the $1.5-million All-American Futurity when she guided Corona Cash to a half-length victory in quarter horse racing’s richest race at Ruidoso Downs, N.M.

Japan’s baseball players will be allowed to become free agents after nine years of professional play, a year less than the current requirement.