Britain’s Holmes Is Back on Top in 1,500

Double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes of Britain passed Tatyana Tomashova in the stretch and won the 1,500 meters at the World Athletics Final on Saturday at Monte Carlo, confirming her status as the premier women’s middle-distance runner.

Holmes, winner of the 800 and 1,500 in Athens, was competing against the Russian for the third time in a month. After beating Tomashova in Athens, Holmes lost to her in Berlin last week.

Jamaica’s Asafa Powell held off Olympic silver medalist Francis Obikwelu to win the 100. Powell finished in 9.98 seconds. He was followed by Portugal’s Obikwelu (10.10) and Ghana’s Aziz Zakari (10.15). World champion Kim Collins was fifth.

Allen Johnson, the four-time world champion and former Olympic gold medalist, won the 110-meter hurdles in 13.16 seconds. Jamaica’s Maurice Wignall was second (13.19) with Latvia’s Stanislavs Olijars third (13.40).

In the pole vault, Timothy Mack won at 19-8 3/4 , beating his best of 19-6 1/4 set in Athens when he took the gold. Fellow American Toby Stevenson was second, as he was at Athens.

Golf

Bart Bryant matched the PGA Tour’s lowest round of the year with a 10-under 60 to build a three-shot lead over Hunter Mahan in the Texas Open at San Antonio.

Bryant broke the course record on the La Cantera Golf Club course and is at 16-under 194 after three rounds.

The round tied the 60 shot by Robert Gamez in January at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

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Candie Kung and Lorie Kane overcame the wind and the rain -- and a rally by Annika Sorenstam -- to top the Safeway Classic leaderboard at Portland, Ore.

Kung shot a four-under 68 to match Kane (69) at seven-under 137 with a round left.

Tennis

Marat Safin defeated Jarkko Nieminen, 6-2, 6-4, in the China Open at Beijing, setting up an all-Russian final with Mikhail Youzhny. Youzhny beat Paradorn Srichaphan, 6-4, 6-4, in the other semifinal.

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Ricardo Mello upset third-seeded Mario Ancic, 7-6 (2), 6-3, advancing to the final at the Millennium International Tennis Championships at Delray Beach, Fla. Mello will be playing in his first ATP title match today against Vince Spadea, who beat Jeff Salzenstein, 6-1, 6-3.

Motor Racing

Travis Kvapil won the weather-delayed NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ Sylvania 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, N.H., racing the final 97 laps without stopping for fuel.

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Greg Pursley closed out the 2004 Lucas Oil Super Late Model series by sweeping the final two feature races at Irwindale Speedway.

Pursley cruised to the first 50-lap win, easily keeping Brandon Loverock in second place, winning by 0.512 seconds. In the second race, two multicar crashes in the first seven laps forced race officials to cut the race to 25 laps. Despite the crashes, Pursley easily held off Todd Southwell for the win. In the 50-lap Auto Club Late Model season finale, Tim Huddleston earned his fourth win of the season, holding off track series champion Doug McComb. Huddleston finished the season in third place, behind runner-up Deryk Ward, who finished the race in third.