Track and Field

Michael Johnson launched his Olympic campaign in devastating style at Petersburg, South Africa, clocking the fourth-fastest 200 meters in history, 19.71 seconds, in his first race of the year.

With an ideal following wind of 1.8 meters per second, the Texan raced away from a field that included South African Marcus la Grange, who turned in the year’s fastest time before Saturday.

Johnson owns three of the four fastest times ever run in the 200 meters, the other going to Namibian Frank Fredericks, who recorded 19.68 in the same race in which Johnson set his world record at 19.32.

Auto Racing

Mark Martin showed who’s boss in the Roush Racing garage at Darlington Raceway, holding off teammate Jeff Burton to win the SunCom 200 in South Carolina.

Martin, the polesitter, and his Ford swept past Burton with 23 laps to go and survived a side-by-side duel in the final stretch for his seventh Busch Grand National victory at Darlington.

Matt Kenseth slipped past Burton for second, only .192 seconds behind the winner.

Defending Indy Racing League champion Greg Ray earned his third consecutive pole dating to last year’s season-ending race during qualifying for the WorldCom Indy 200 at Avondale, Ariz.

Also at Avondale, Joe Ruttman came away best from a brush with Andy Houston and won the Chevy Trucks 150, picking up his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title in two years.

Gary Scelzi led top fuel qualifying for the 20th time in his career at the NHRA’s Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

The Audi R8 driven by pole winner Frank Biela of Monaco, Tom Kristensen of Denmark and Emanuele Pirro of Italy sped to victory in the 48th 12 Hours at Sebring sports car race at Sebring, Fla. A second Audi, wheeled by Michele Alboreto and Rinaldo Capello of Italy and Allan McNish of Scotland, was second.

Miscellany

Americans Neil Walker and Jenny Thompson set world records in the 100-meter individual medley and butterfly events at the World Short Course Championships at Athens, Greece. Setting his fourth record of the meet, Walker swam the distance in 52.79 seconds to break the record of 53.10 held by Finland’s Jani Sievien since 1996.

Kristy Kowal of Georgia set the U.S. record in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:22.05 during the final of the women’s swimming and diving championships at Indianapolis. Georgia also set a U.S. record in the 400-meter freestyle relay and clinched its second consecutive team title with 490 1/2 points. Courtney Shealy, Stefanie Williams, Jennifer Mihalik and Maritza Correia swam the relay in 3 minutes 37.67 seconds. The USC women’s team finished in seventh place with 185 points. Freshman Asa Sandlund was third in the 1,500-meter freestyle and junior Corrie Murphy was seventh in the 200-meter backstroke.

Former Kansas basketball coach Dick Harp, who was an assistant to Phog Allen, coached Wilt Chamberlain and helped bring current coach Roy Williams to Kansas, died in Lawrence, Kansas. He was 81.

Georgetown of Kentucky (34-4), getting 35 points from Will Carlton, outlasted Biola, 118-108, in four overtimes at Tulsa, Okla., to advance to the final of the NAIA Division I basketball tournament against defending champion Life of Georgia. Marcus White scored 35 points for Biola (28-7).

Iowa held off Iowa State to win a sixth consecutive wrestling championship at St. Louis. Iowa, which has won 20 of the last 26 titles, finished with 116 points to Iowa State’s 109.5 points.

World Cup champion Hermann Maier crashed and compatriot Michaela Dorfmeister was only a runner-up in a World Cup race at Borimo, Italy. Still, the Austrian duo did well enough to win the men’s and women’s giant slalom crystal globes.

Vladimir Klitschko (32-1, 30 knockouts) knocked out Paea Wolfgramm (18-2) of Tonga in 90 seconds at Hamburg, Germany, to claim the vacant World Boxing Assn’s International super heavyweight title.