Richards, Isinbayeva stay on course for jackpot

American 400-meter runner Sanya Richards and world pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva remained on course for the $1 million Golden League jackpot Friday, winning their events at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels.

Richards won in 49.29, the season’s best time, and Isinbayeva of Russia won with a height of 15 feet 9 inches before failing at the world-record height of 16-5 1/2 .

At Berlin’s ISTAF meet Sunday, both will seek a sweep of their respective events in all six Golden League meets to claim half of the bonus.

No bonus was available, but Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar certainly made her mark in the two-mile run.

Defar set a world’s best time, smashing the mark she set earlier this year by nearly 12 seconds to finish in 8 minutes 58.58 seconds. She shaved 11.89 seconds off the mark she set in May at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

Defar already had set world records in the 5,000 outdoors and the 3,000 indoors early in the season. But because the two-mile is a rarely run race, the IAAF does not consider it an official world record.

Fellow world record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica easily won the 100 meters in 9.84 running into the wind. He set his world record of 9.74 seconds last Sunday at the Rieti Grand Prix in Italy.

Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell won the women’s 100 in 11.11, and Americans Wallace Spearmon and Xavier Carter finished 1-2 in the 200. Spearman won in 19.88.

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TENNIS

Davenport reaches

semifinals of Bali Open

Lindsay Davenport continued her comeback, making it to the semifinals of the Bali Open at Nusa Dua, Indonesia, by defeating top-seeded Jelena Jankovic, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

“I would never expect to have played anything near how this week has gone, and it’s fun to be out there,” said Davenport, who is returning to singles play for the first time since having a child in June.

Davenport withdrew from her doubles semifinal because of a left forearm strain. She will next play Sara Errani, who upset seventh-seeded Aiko Nakamura, 6-1, 6-2.

Second-seeded Daniela Hantuchova also advanced, beating Ayumi Morita, 6-2, 6-1. She will play Sorana Cirstea, who defeated Edina Gallovits, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3).

Defending champion Marcos Baghdatis was upset, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5), by fourth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic in the quarterfinals of the China Open at Beijing.

Ljubicic ended a three-match losing streak against the fifth-seeded Baghdatis. He will play second-seeded Fernando Gonzalez in today’s semifinals. Gonzalez overcame three rain delays to beat sixth-seeded Lee Hyung-Taik, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4.

Third-seeded Tommy Robredo also advanced to the semifinals, defeating Igor Kunitsyn, 6-3, 6-1. He will play Nicolas Kiefer, who beat Marin Cilic, 6-3, 7-5.

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BASKETBALL

Missed free throws

give Lithuania win

Croatia’s Marko Planinic missed two free throws with a second to play, and Lithuania won, 74-72, to advance to the semifinals of the European Championship at Madrid.

Planinic, who led Croatia with 16 points, missed his first attempt moments after teammate Marko Popovic missed a three-point shot with two seconds to play. Ramunas Siskauskas led Lithuania with 20 points as the three-time champion returned to the semifinals for the first time since it won the tournament in 2003.

The Golden State Warriors are close to reaching a deal to rework Coach Don Nelson’s contract and bring him back for another season with the team.

Nelson, who had two years left on the contract he signed last year, would get a raise from $3.1 million to $5.1 million a year under the new deal, according to the Contra Costa Times.

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RUGBY

South Africa routs

England at World Cup

South Africa routed England, 36-0, in the World Cup at Paris, handing the defending champion its biggest defeat in 30 games at the tournament.

JP Pietersen scored two tries for the Springboks, and Juan Smith got the other. Percy Montgomery kicked 18 points as the 1995 world champions posted their fourth consecutive win over England, which failed to score a point for the first time in six World Cups.

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SOCCER

Sanchez wants white

jerseys instead of green

National team manager Hugo Sanchez will replace Mexico’s traditional green home jerseys with white ones, because -- he claims -- green blends in with the turf too easily, affecting the visibility of players on the field.

In a country where “put on the green” has became a catch-phrase for soccer fans, the decision is likely to be a controversial one.

“The impression it gives from the outside is that there are fewer players in green jerseys, than would be if they had jerseys that contrasted with the field,” Sanchez told the local radio program Pasion W.

“Given that the colors of the flag are green, white and red, I told them [officials] that I would to love play the majority of matches in white, with the second [away] uniform being red, all red.”