Boldon Defeats Greene in 100; Jones, Johnson Return to Form

Ato Boldon won the men’s 100-meter showdown Friday night at the Athletissima track and field meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, beating world-record holder and training partner Maurice Greene.

Marion Jones, the world champion in the women’s 100, won her event in 10.80 seconds, the fastest time of the year, and Michael Johnson showed he had recovered from a quadriceps injury, winning the 400 in 43.92, also the year’s best time.

Boldon, of Trinidad & Tobago and UCLA, surged down the lightning-quick track in 9.86, tying the season’s second-best time and his personal best.

“The last thing my mother said was, ‘Don’t run 9.86 again,’ ” said Boldon, laughing. He has run the 100 in 9.86 four times. “Maybe they were expecting a record, but it is nothing to be ashamed of when you hit your personal best for the second time in three weeks.”

Greene was second, .07 behind Boldon.

Johnson, who skipped a 200 showdown against Greene at the U.S. Championships last week because of the injury, became the first 400 runner to break 44 seconds this season. It was his 72nd win in 74 finals in the 400.

Basketball

Coach Rick Majerus of the University of Utah turned down an offer from Minnesota to replace Clem Haskins, according to a published report. Majerus, who has led Utah to eight NCAA tournament appearances in 10 years at the school, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that he talked to Gopher Athletic Director Mark Dienhart for an hour about the position. Majerus declined the position for personal reasons, the paper said.

Italy blew an 18-point lead, but came back to beat two-time defending champion Yugoslavia, 71-62, and set up a championship game against Spain today for the European Championship at Paris. Alberto Herreros scored 29 points as Spain advanced with a 73-60 victory over host France.

Olympics

Kings, queens and assorted VIPs will get no free tickets, transportation or parking during the 2002 Winter Olympics, a policy committee of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee decided.

The panel, headed by Nolan Karras--Gov. Mike Leavitt’s Olympic representative--drafted an ethics and conflict-of-interest code and policies intended to open records and meetings to the public.

Even SLOC’s 54 volunteer trustees may have to purchase tickets to Olympic competitions, though that issue is undecided, Karras said. The no-freebie policy applies to virtually everyone other than IOC members, who by contract will get credentials and special seating at every Olympic ceremony and event.

Some 1,300 high school band students from the United States and Japan, including 800 in Southern California and several hundred more from Atlanta, learned this week that the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games was rescinding its invitation for their bands to play a seven-minute show during opening ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Games.

Miscellany

Former Northwestern basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong was shot in the lower back late Friday while jogging near his home in a Chicago suburb, police said.

Byrdsong, 42, was listed in critical condition at Evanston Hospital, where he was undergoing surgery.

Skokie Police Lieutenant Barry Silverberg said Byrdsong was jogging about a block from his home, accompanied by his 8-year-old son, who was riding a bicycle.

Silverberg said someone in a car fired at least seven shots at Byrdsong, apparently with a .22-caliber handgun.

The driver of the limousine that crashed two years ago and severely injured two members of the Detroit Red Wing organization was arrested in Michigan on a drunk-driving charge. Richard Gnida was arrested just months after his license had been reinstated following a three-year revocation, which was in effect at the time of the accident. Gnida, 29, was arraigned on a charge of third-offense operating under the influence of liquor. The misdemeanor carries a possible year in jail and $1,000 fine.

The Chicago Fire won a marathon shootout, 4-3, and scored a 2-1 Major League Soccer victory over the Dallas Burn before a crowd of 12,185 at Chicago. . . . The 8-year-old son of NFL quarterback Jeff Hostetler is recovering from an undisclosed spinal cord injury, suffered two weeks ago when the all-terrain vehicle he was riding in overturned. Hostetler has not commented on Tyler’s injury, but has said football is out for this year. The 15-year veteran is a free agent, and the Tennessee Titans had been looking at him as a possible backup. . . . Nancy Hall, the wife of longtime former Times and Orange County Register sports columnist John Hall, died after a 13-month battle with breast cancer. At her request, there will be no funeral service. A memorial will be held July 15 at a site to be named. . . . Michael Chang has entered the $50,000 Safeway Challenger in Aptos, Calif., and will be the highest-ranked player ever in such an event. Chang is ranked 58th.