It’s All Fun and Games for Boldon, With a 9.88 in the 100

Ato Boldon didn’t break the world record, but he celebrated in style anyway after winning the 100-meter run in 9.88 seconds Thursday at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Boldon, a former UCLA runner from Trinidad, had said he felt capable of beating Donovan Bailey’s 9.84 but settled for breaking Linford Christie’s Games mark of 9.91, set four years ago.

Boldon, who has twice run 9.86 this season, took the flag of Trinidad from one of his fans and ran a victory lap with a crowd of 37,000 cheering him on.

Boldon’s main rival, Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, finished second in 9.96 and Obadele Thompson of Barbados, who ran 9.87 at altitude in Johannesburg last Friday, was third in 10 flat.

Tennis

Top-seeded Francisco Clavet of Spain advanced to the quarterfinals of the Romanian Open at Bucharest with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Dinu Pescariu of Romania, but second-seeded Richard Fromberg of Australia, the defending champion, was eliminated. Emilio Alvarez of Spain beat Fromberg, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-5.

Second-seeded Tim Henman of Britain beat Israel’s Eyal Ran, 6-4, 6-1, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the President’s Cup tournament at Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Unseeded Karsten Braasch of Germany upset fifth-seeded Marc Rosset of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-7 (8-6), 6-3. . . . Defending champion and third-seeded Felix Mantilla defeated fellow Spaniard Jordi Burillo, 7-5, 6-2, to reach the quarterfinals of the Samsung Open at Bournemouth, England.

Names in the News

Rick Adelman is back in the NBA after being hired as coach of the Sacramento Kings. . . . Joel Sobotka, 28, became the youngest coach in major college basketball when he was named the men’s coach at Portland State. Sobotka was an assistant coach for two seasons under Ritchie McKay, who resigned Aug. 21 to take the coaching job at Colorado State.

Michelle Kwan, the world and national figure skating champion, officially graduated from Rim of the World High in Lake Arrowhead on Thursday. Kwan, 18, earned a 3.9 (out of 4.0) grade-point average in her senior year.

Miscellany

Kim Dae Jung, South Korea’s president, asked the International Olympic Committee to help organize single teams for South Korea and North Korea for the Sydney Olympics and other international sports events. He made the request during a meeting with IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was in Seoul for an IOC executive board meeting.

Junius Kellogg, whose report of a bribe offered by a former Manhattan College teammate helped uncover the college basketball scandals of the early 1950s in New York, died of respiratory failure Wednesday night. He was 71.

Kellogg, a 6-foot-10 center, was the first black player at Manhattan. He was approached about shaving points in 1951 by Henry Poppe, the team’s former captain.

Lubos Kubik scored on a penalty kick in the 59th minute to give the Chicago Fire a 1-0 Major League Soccer victory over the Kansas City Wizards before a crowd of 8,283 at Chicago. The loss by Kansas City clinched a playoff berth for the third-place Colorado Rapids in the Western Conference.

The UCLA and USC women’s soccer teams face nationally ranked teams when they co-host the Fila Challenge this weekend.

Tonight, the Trojans (2-2) play Baylor, ranked 18th by Soccer America, at 6 p.m. at UCLA’s Spaulding Field. The Bruins (4-1) then play No. 11 Nebraska at 8.

On Sunday at the Coliseum, the teams will switch, the Bruins playing Baylor at 11 a.m. and the Trojans facing Nebraska at 1 p.m.

New Mexico State named Jim Paul as its athletic director, giving him the job he had held on an interim basis for the last year.