Coughlin Sets World Record in Breaststroke

Natalie Coughlin, the NCAA swimmer of the year, set the world record in the 200-meter breaststroke Tuesday night at East Meadow, N.Y., finishing in 2 minutes 3.52 seconds in the FINA World Cup.

“I saw that I was ahead, but I did not see by how much,” she said.

“The last 18 months have been amazing and I have been loving every minute of it.”

The California sophomore beat the mark of 2:04.44, set Aug. 6 by Sarah Price of Britain.

“It was really, really surprising. “I didn’t expect this,” Coughlin said. “All I was trying to do was work on my stroke and my underwaters.”

Coughlin, 19, has had lots of success in the Long Island pool she called “my lucky one.”

She won three times there in March during the NCAA championships.

Neil Walker, the two-time silver medalist in last year’s Olympics, won the 100 backstroke and the 100 individual medley in the opening day of the meet.

Jason Lezak, a gold and silver medalist in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, kept Walker from three wins by taking the 100 freestyle.

Soccer

Pele, the most famous soccer player in history, denied any involvement in the disappearance of a $700,000 cash advance to his marketing company that was to have helped fund a benefit game for the U.N. Children’s Fund.

Pele accused his former business partner, Helio Viana, of taking the money and said he has filed a lawsuit to try to recover the missing cash. The game, scheduled for 1995, was never played.

Pele’s comments to the Associated Press were among the first he has made in his defense since media reports in his native Brazil suggested last week that he might have been personally culpable.

The allegations threaten to tarnish the reputation of the three-time World Cup champion.

Pele, 60, acknowledged that things probably happened at his company, Pele Sports & Marketing Inc., that he wasn’t aware of. He blamed Viana, who owned 40% of the business.

“Sometimes I signed things without looking. You work with someone for 15 years, you trust them,” he said in an interview at a London hotel.

Miscellany

The IAAF Grand Prix Final of track and field will become a two-day event and take place in Monaco for at least three years beginning in 2003, the International Association of Athletics Federations Council said.

The Grand Prix Final, the culmination of the outdoor season, is being moved to the home of the IAAF to combine it with the World Athletics Gala and “ensure the event has a stronger sense of identity,” the world governing body said in a release.

The IAAF also said it was stripping Russian race walker German Skurygin of his 50-kilometer title at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain, because of a positive test for human chorionic gonadotropin.

The hormone is used to boost production of testosterone in men.

Mayor Dave Armstrong unveiled a preliminary financing plan for a new downtown arena, a vital component to Louisville’s pursuit of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.

Armstrong’s plan breaks down into three parts the cost of the $250-million arena project.

The arena itself would cost $188.5 million, and another $7 million would go toward renovations to Freedom Hall, home of the University of Louisville Cardinals, where the NBA team would play until the arena is built.

A $31-million parking garage would also be built, and $1.5 million in renovations would be made to Louisville Gardens, a seldom-used downtown arena the team could utilize as a practice facility. The remainder of the cost would pay for the property where the arena complex would be built.

The Arena Football League will fold four of its 20 teams before the 2002 season starts in April, the league said.

The indoor league will fold the Florida Bobcats, Milwaukee Mustangs, Houston ThunderBears and Oklahoma Wranglers.

The players will be sent to other teams in a dispersal draft.

Norway made another strong showing in World Cup cross-country skiing, winning the men’s 40-kilometer relay in 1 hour 38 minutes 28 seconds at Kuopio, Finland.

Russia won the women’s 20-kilometer relay.

The United States will open the 2002 Fed Cup at home against Austria after skipping the final round this year because of security concerns.

The Americans were seeded first for next year, with defending champion Belgium second.

First-round matches will be April 27-28.

Olympic swim coach Gennadi Touretski was cleared to return to the Australian national team, two months after steroid possession charges against him were dropped.

His case was investigated by Australian Swimming, and he is now eligible for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.

About 2,000 people at Seoul rallied to protest a decision allowing two South Korean provinces to share a bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Korea Olympic Committee reached its decision Nov. 16 after years of competition between the Kangwon and North Cholla provinces for the bid.

Opposition lawmakers considered the idea unrealistic. Kangwon, a traditional host for winter sports in South Korea, demanded a new election.

Local Olympic officials have no immediate plan to reconsider. They said neither province has enough facilities to stage the Olympics alone.