Lehman, Baird Tied for Lead

Tom Lehman made two eagles Saturday for a five-under-par 67 that left him tied for the lead with Briny Baird in the Funai Classic at Disney in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Lehman missed a five-foot birdie putt on the final hole to finish at 17-under 199, the third week in a row he has had at least a share of the 54-hole lead.

Baird, winless in 153 starts on the PGA Tour, missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 68. He rallied from a three-shot deficit after Lehman holed out from 88 yards for eagle on the 13th hole. Lehman had a 15-foot eagle putt on No. 4.

Scott Verplank had a bogey-free 65 and was one shot behind, but the real threat was only three shots behind. Vijay Singh, the No. 1 player going after his fourth consecutive PGA Tour victory, also shot a 65.

*

Tom Kite shot an even-par 72 to take a two-stroke lead over Jose Maria Canizares in a misty drizzle during the third round of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, the Champions Tour’s season-ending event at Sonoma Golf Club. Kite, at 10-under 206, has led each of the first three rounds. Canizares shot a two-under 70.

Motor Racing

Martin Truex Jr. extended his NASCAR Busch Series points lead, holding off Greg Biffle to win the Sam’s Town 250 at Memphis, Tenn. Truex’s victory, his sixth of the season, extended his lead over Kyle Busch to 208 points. Busch, who was leading until the 202nd lap, brushed the wall in the second turn and finished 14th.

Jamie McMurray held off Dennis Setzer on a restart with 12 laps to go at Martinsville, Va., and won his first NASCAR Craftsman Trucks Series race.

The Nextel Cup Series driver, making only his third start in a Dodge truck this season, became only the eighth driver in NASCAR history to win in the premier series, the Busch Series and in a truck.

Rubens Barrichello won the pole position for today’s Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, taking advantage after Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher crashed in practice earlier in the day.

Barrichello completed a lap around the 2.678-mile circuit in 1 minute 10.646 seconds -- 0.204 of a second ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams-BMW. Schumacher had the eighth-best time at 1:11.386 but will start 18th because of a 10-place penalty for changing engines after the crash.

Formula One’s governing body, meanwhile, announced a new qualifying system that determines pole position the day of the race, instead of the day before. The change, scheduled to go into effect next year, is among several moves by the International Automobile Federation, or FIA.

Austin Cameron earned his fifth NASCAR Grand National West Series victory by winning the NAPA Auto Parts 150, but Mike Duncan held on to claim the 2004 series title as Irwindale Speedway closed out the 2004 regular season.

In the first 75-lap segment, Scott Lynch and David Gilliland spent the first 15 laps exchanging the lead. Gilliland lost his right front tire going into lap 66 and gave up the lead for the rest of the segment to Johnny Borneman.

After a 10-minute intermission, Borneman and Cameron pulled away from the pack, with Cameron taking the lead on lap 87 when Borneman lost power and pulled off the track. Cameron won, but Duncan, who finished ninth, took the title by 16 points, 2,090-2,074.

Tennis

Third-seeded Marat Safin defeated second-seeded Andre Agassi, 6-3, 7-6 (4), to advance to the final of the Madrid Masters. He will play fourth-seeded David Nalbandian, who beat Ivan Ljubicic, 6-4, 6-4.

Neither player was broken in the second set, and Agassi had a chance to take the set when he went up 3-1 and then 4-2 in the tiebreaker. But Safin won three straight points, going up 5-4 when Agassi hit a forehand long, and went on to clinch the match.

Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova advanced to the final of the Swisscom Challenge in Zurich, defeating third-seeded Elena Dementieva, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. The fourth-seeded Sharapova extended her winning streak to 12 matches. She will play Olympic bronze medalist Alicia Molik, who defeated 10th-seeded Patty Schnyder, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Soccer

More than a record unbeaten streak is at stake when Arsenal plays at Manchester United today: The result could determine who wins the Premier League championship.

If Arsenal can extend its streak to 50 games, Manchester United would fall 14 points behind after only 10 games. United is 3-1-5 for 14 points. Arsenal is 8-0-1 for 25 points.

Eidur Gudjohnsen scored a hat trick to help second-place Chelsea beat Blackburn, 4-0, and move to within two points of Arsenal.

The presidency of the German soccer federation will be split between two men for the first time in the organization’s 104-year history under a move approved in Osnabruck designed to avoid a power struggle heading into the World Cup in 2006. Theo Zwanziger, backed by the country’s amateur teams, was given a share of the office with incumbent Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, a FIFA executive committee member and largely seen as the voice of the professional Bundesliga.

Abby Wambach became the fourth player in U.S. women’s national team history to score five goals in a game, leading the Americans to a 5-0 exhibition victory over Ireland at Houston.

Winter Sports

Anja Paerson of Sweden picked up where she left off last year, winning the season-opening World Cup giant slalom at Soelden, Austria.

Paerson, who swept the World Cup giant slalom and slalom titles last season, had a two-run time of 2 minutes 25.21 seconds. Finland’s Tanja Poutiainen was second, 0.32 seconds behind.

Miscellany

Luc Richard Mbaha Moute, a 6-foot-7 forward from Montverde (Fla.) Academy, has committed to play basketball at UCLA, said his high school coach, Kevin Sutton.