Miami of Ohio Coach Coles Is Released From Hospital

Miami of Ohio basketball Coach Charlie Coles was released from the hospital in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Sunday, eight days after collapsing and suffering cardiac arrest during a Mid-American Conference tournament game.

Coles, who has a history of heart problems, said he intends to return to coaching.

“It’s my life. I’ve been doing it for 36 years and it’s something that is more important than the wins and losses,” he said. “I want to work with young people on and off the court.”

Despite original reports that Coles had suffered a heart attack during the game, Bronson Methodist Hospital cardiologists said that while he had cardiac arrest, he did not have a heart attack.

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Greg Herrick, the women’s basketball coach at College of the Canyons who collapsed at the end of Orange Coast’s 74-66 victory over the Cougars in a junior college game Saturday night in Costa Mesa, was released from an Orange County hospital and is resting at home, according to his wife, Marilyn. Herrick will undergo further tests this week.

Motor Sports

Scott Russell became the first five-time winner of the Daytona 200 motorbike race, leading all but one of the 57 laps at Daytona Beach, Fla.

Rain forced the Primestar 500 race to be postponed until today at Atlanta Motor Speedway amid claims that the 1.54-mile oval at Hampton, Ga. is too fast after being reconfigured. Three drivers were injured in separate crashes last week.

Winter Sports

Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann, the Olympic silver medalist, led a sweep of the top three places by German women in a World Cup 1,500-meter speedskating race at Inzell, Germany. Niemann-Stirnemann won in 2 minutes 0.99 seconds.

Rintje Ritsma of the Netherlands posted his second win in two days. After winning Saturday’s 1,500-meter race, Ritsma won the 5,000, with a course-record 6:36.33.

Austrian skier Hans Knauss won a World Cup super-G on Kvitfjell, Norway’s 1994 Olympic course, clocking 1 minute 30.80 seconds down the 2,574-meter Olympiabakken.

The 1998 Iditarod sled-dog race made its official start as 63 teams left Willow, Alaska, on the 1,110-mile journey to Nome.

Miscellany

Rob Colley had three hits and three runs batted in, and Ben Bertrand homered and drove in three runs as Oregon State defeated USC, 13-6. Brody Percell (1-2) gave up eight hits and six runs, three earned, in seven innings for the Beavers (7-5-1). USC starter Jason Saenz (1-2) gave up three hits and six runs, two earned, in 1 2/3 innings as the Trojans fell to 16-5. . . . Jeff Phelps hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning to help Arizona State to a 9-3 victory over UCLA at Westwood. The Sun Devils (15-6, 5-3 Pac-10) won two of three weekend games against UCLA (9-13, 4-7).

The USC men’s and women’s track-and-field teams dominated the Trojan Invitational at Cromwell Stadium. The men’s team won its six-way meet, in order of finish, over California, Cal State Bakersfield, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly Pomona. The Trojans also went 4-0 in dual meets.

The women’s team beat San Diego State, Cal, UC Irvine, Fullerton and Bakersfield, and also went 4-0 in dual competition.

Top-ranked Stanford won its 17th consecutive Pacific 10 Conference swimming championship, finishing ahead of USC, California, Arizona State and Washington at the Belmont Plaza pool in Long Beach.

Brazil’s Alexandre Massura broke the South American record in the 50-meter backstroke at a World Cup swimming meet Rio de Janeiro. Massura’s time of 25.33 seconds bettered the previous record of 25.64 held by Sebastian Lasav of Argentina. Patricia Comini tied a South American record in winning the women’s 50-meter breaststroke in 33.68.

Stacy Dragila of the United States and Daniela Bartova of the Czech Republic both cleared 14 feet, 8 1/4 inches, to break the women’s world indoor pole vault record at a meet in Sindelfingen, Germany.

In addition, Gabriela Szabo of Romania shattered the world best in the women’s 2,000 meters, clocking 5 minutes, 30.53 seconds. Szabo clipped nearly four seconds off the mark of 5:34.52 set by Mary Slaney in 1985 at Los Angeles.

Thailand’s Saman Sorjaturong knocked down Japan’s Shiro Yashiro in the third round and stopped him in the fourth, retaining the WBC junior-flyweight title at Yokohama, Japan.

In another title fight, Japan’s Joichiro Tatsuyoshi defended the WBC bantamweight crown with a unanimous 12-round decision over Jose Rafael Sosa of Argentina.