Two U.S. Gymnasts Get Solid Scores

American teenagers Courtney Kupets and Ashley Postell are making the most of their first World Gymnastic Championships.

Kupets finished second on the uneven bars and Postell was second on the vault in qualifying at the championships Wednesday at Debrecen, Hungary.

Kupets scored 9.575 points to finish second behind Olympic champion Svetlana Khorkina of Russia, who scored 9.737. Lyudmila Eyova of Russia was third.

Postell took second in the vault with 9.268 points, finishing behind Natalia Ziganshina of Russia, who scored 9.387, and placed fourth in the balance beam.

Sabina Cojocar of Romania was third in the vault, and American Terin Humphrey was ninth.

American Samantha Sheenan finished sixth and Humphrey placed eighth to advance to the semifinal round of the floor exercise.

The top 16 in each event advanced to the second round, and eight qualify for the third and final round in each event.

Zhang Nan of China took first place in two qualifying events. She won the balance beam with 9.625 points and took the floor exercise with 9.387 points.

Defending Olympic vault champion Elena Zamolodchikova of Russia did not take any risks, and her average of 9.206 comfortably put her among the 16 athletes who qualified for the second round.

Miscellany

Major League Baseball could help ensure that the sport stays in the Olympics beyond 2008 by letting its players compete, said Aldo Notari, president of the International Baseball Federation.

The IOC’s program committee has recommended that baseball be eliminated after the 2008 Games in Beijing.

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Venezuelan rower Alexis Coba, 21, was missing after a scull flipped over on a wind-swept lake in El Salvador during training for the Central American and Caribbean Games. Three other men swam to safety.

The accident happened in Lake Coatepeque, about 30 miles west of San Salvador, police said.

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A South Korean hockey player died after he was hit in the chest by a puck during a league game Tuesday at Chuncheon, South Korea.

Seung Ho Chi, 21, who played for Kwang-woon University in a domestic league, tried to block a shot. He was dead by the time he arrived at a hospital.

The Korean Ice Hockey Assn. said the exact cause of death was not yet known.

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North Korea’s Im Yong Su won the gold medal in the men’s 137-pound division in the World Weightlifting Championships at Warsaw.

He defeated favorite Su Feixiang of China, lifting 309 pounds in the snatch and 386 in the clean and jerk for a total of 695.

In the women’s 117-pound competition, Ri Song Hui of North Korea won two gold medals and Li Xuejiu of China got the third.

Both set a world record of 281 pounds in the clean and jerk, but Li won the gold medal because she weighs less.

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FINA, swimming’s international governing body, said it has established a rule that requires swimmers to undergo tests for the endurance-boosting hormone EPO before any world record can be approved.

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Funai Electric Co. will be the title sponsor of the PGA Tour event at Disney World, increasing the purse to $4 million next year.

Passings

Kim Gallagher, a middle-distance runner who overcame illness to win medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, died. She was 38.

Gallagher died of a stroke Monday at Roxborough Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia. Story in Section B.

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Prince Alexandre de Merode, who led the Olympic fight against drugs for four decades, died Tuesday night in a hospital in Brussels. He was 68.

His death was announced by the IOC.

The cause of death was not disclosed, but de Merode, a Belgian, was known to have had lung cancer. Story in Section B.