Mediate Happy to Tame Tiger

Rocco Mediate, an also-ran for most of his 13-year career, said he wasn’t in awe of Tiger Woods.

He proved it Saturday in head-to-head competition at the Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., shooting a five-under-par 66 to increase a two-stroke lead over Woods to six shots.

Mediate’s third consecutive sub-70 round gave him a 54-hole score of 11-under 202.

Woods, who has won seven titles in a little more than two full seasons, had to birdie the last hole to finish with a 70 and a second-place 208.

He was one shot ahead of 1993 winner Lee Janzen, Harrison Frazar and first-round leader Justin Leonard.

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Karrie Webb shot a 70 in the final round and birdied two of the final three holes to win the LPGA Office Depot tournament at Ibis Country Club at West Palm Beach, Fla.

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Jim Colbert had three birdie putts to earn $150,000 at Kohala Coast, Hawaii, and become the biggest first-day winner in Senior Skins Game history.

Colbert won three holes worth seven skins, in the process shutting out five-time defending champion Raymond Floyd, Arnold Palmer and Hale Irwin.

Olympics

Vitaly Smirnov of Russia, one of three IOC members who remain under investigation in the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, said he and IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch have plenty of support.

“We are receiving dozens of letters signed by champions from all countries, supporting Samaranch, supporting what we’re doing and supporting me,” Smirnov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee, was quoted as saying in the Swiss newspaper Le Temps.

Nine other members have either resigned or been expelled over alleged bribes during the successful campaign by Salt Lake City to host the 2002 Winter Games. Another has received a warning.

In other developments:

* The New York Times reported that leaders of Salt Lake City’s effort to get the Games set up a four-year campaign in 1991 that included giving financial assistance to people influential in picking the host city.

Included in a budget summary presented at a meeting of the bid committee’s board of trustees was a projection to spend about $500,000 on help to national Olympic committees and contracts with “key individuals” in three areas of the world, the Times reported.

* Broadcasting chief Manolo Romero will meet with the Sydney Olympic organizing committee in the wake of allegations he received a $1-million kickback while broadcasting chief for the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Romero, the chief executive officer of the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organization, denied the allegations.

* Kim Un-Yong, a powerful South Korean member of the IOC executive board, refused to meet with journalists over the continuing investigation into allegations of misconduct.

Lawyers for Mary Slaney presented research at her trial in Monte Carlo that they claim undermines the controversial drug test that got her suspended in 1997.

Slaney, considered by many the best women’s distance runner in U.S. history, gave a urine sample during the 1996 Olympic trials that showed a testosterone-epitestosterone ratio above the 6-1 limit.

Slaney was suspended the following year, then reinstated. The case is expected to be decided early next week.

Boxing

Heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, who will fight Lennox Lewis for the undisputed heavyweight title March 13 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, says he will continue to fight if he wins.

Holyfield said he will first give Henry Akinwande a title shot.

Unbeaten heavyweight Michael Grant won his 29th consecutive fight, overpowering former sparring partner Ahmad Abdin and stopping him in the 10th round of their scheduled 12-rounder at Atlantic City, N.J.

On the undercard, Andrew Golota posted a unanimous 10-round decision over out-of-shape journeyman Jesse Ferguson, who took the bout on two days’ notice after Jimmy Thunder tore an Achilles’ tendon in training and pulled out Wednesday.

Bert Schenk of Germany knocked out American Freemann Barr with 37 seconds left in the fourth round at Cottbuss, Germany, to win the vacant World Boxing Organization middleweight title.

Fernando Ibarra of Laredo, Texas, was in critical condition because of a blood clot on the brain after being knocked out by Ratanachai Vorapin of Thailand, the IBF’s No. 1 junior flyweight contender, in the sixth round of a scheduled eight-round fight Friday night at St. Louis.

Winter Sports

Russia’s Maria Butyrskaya defended her European Figure Skating title at Prague. And in an achievement unprecedented in the championship’s 69-year history, all the men’s and women’s medals were won by Russians.

Alexei Yagudin defended his title Thursday. Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov won the pair’s title and Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov won the ice dance competition.

Olympic silver medalist Elvis Stojko used two quadruple jumps to win his fifth national crown at the Canadian figure skating championships at Ottawa.

Miscellany

Marcus Brunson, in his first race for Arizona State after transferring from Wyoming, broke the NCAA 60-meter indoor record with a 6.46-second clocking at the Flagstaff Invitational in Flagstaff, Ariz. Brunson broke the record of 6.50 set by Lee McRae of Pittsburgh on March 7, 1987. . . Mike Miller rolled a strike in the 10th frame and beat Dave Wodka, 232-223, to win the Don Carter PBA Classic at Dallas.

At the halfway point of the Rolex 24 at Daytona Beach, Fla., the Ferrari 333SP Can-Am of Wayne Taylor, Allan McNish, Max Angelelli and Didier da Radiques held a lead of less than a lap over the Riley & Scott of former winners Andy Wallace, Elliott-Forbes Robinson, Butch Leitzinger and car owner Rob Dyson. . . . Raul Boesel, whose full-time ride is in the Indy Racing League, has been signed to replace Paul Tracy in the season-opening race for the rival CART series. Tracy was suspended from the March 21 opener at Homestead, Fla., by CART after a rough drive during a race in Australia last October.