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A roundup of the sports information of the week
BICYCLING—EDDY MERCK, of Belgium won the world amateur road championship in Sallanches, France by covering the twisting 115-mile course in 4:39.10, for an average speed of 24.73 mph.
BOATING—The New York Yacht Club picked CONSTELLATION as the 19th defender of the America's Cup, and the Royal Thames Yacht Club chose SOVEREIGN as its challenger for next week's series at Newport, R.I. (see page 18).
With his 20-year-old son crewing for him, DON EDLER, a 41-year-old manufacturer of missile parts from Newport Harbor, Calif., defeated defending champ Joe Duplin over Duplin's home course off Winthrop, Mass., plus 53 other top Star skippers, to win his first Star class world title.
Mrs. Jane Pegel steered a zippy Melges scow through a stiff seven-race series on her home waters of Lake Geneva, Wis. to beat seven other lady skippers for the coveted Adams Cup, the North American women's sailing championship. It was the second time in eight years that Mrs. Pegel had won the cup.
BOXING—In Miami Beach, JOSE TORRES, the seventh-ranked middleweight, lasted through a seesaw match against surprisingly hard-punching Gomeo Brennan for a split decision.
GOLF—Burly HOMERO BLANCAS, the former University of Houston golf star who is now in the U.S. Army, stroked a 10-under-par 278 for 72 holes over the Fort Benning, Ga. course to win the Inter-service Golf Championship. His score tied the tournament record.
HARNESS RACING—Little AYRES took three faltering steps at the start of The Hambletonian's two mile heats, but did not make another false move as Driver Johnny Simpson Sr. urged Mrs. Charlotte N. Sheppard's 3-year-old to a record win in Du Quoin, Ill. (see page 54).
HORSE RACING—Briardale Farm's TOSMAH ($3.50), Sammy Boulmetis up, won the $29,200 Maskette Handicap at Aqueduct by six lengths over Old Hat and boosted her earnings for the year to $202,361.
SOFTBALL—LIND FLORISTS of Portland, Ore., which had lost the final game of the Women's World Championship (fast pitch) three times in the past five years to the Raybestos Brakettes of Stratford, Conn., finally won the title by upsetting the Brakettes 1-0 in Orlando, Fla.
SWIMMING—During the six-day Olympic trials in the huge, 100-meter pool in Astoria, Queens, five world and seven American records were toppled. "The competition was so tough," said one swimmer, "that the Olympics will be a breeze." The toughest competitor was 19-year-old ROY SAARI, who swished through the 1,500-meter freestyle in a world-record-shattering 16:58.7 (see page 58). Other outstanding performers were CHET JASTREMSKI, who broke his own world record in the 200-meter breaststroke with a 2:28.2 clocking in a heat, and THOMPSON MANN, who first equaled the world mark of 1:00.9 in the 100-meter backstroke in a morning heat, and in the final later in the day broke the record when he breezed through the course in one minute flat. In the women's events husky MARILYN RAMENOFSKY set a world record (4:39.5) in the 400-meter freestyle final; DONNA de VARONA lowered the 400-meter individual-medley world time to 5:14.9; and blonde SHARON STOUDER bettered the listed mark for the 100-meter butterfly with a 1:05.7, although she has better times pending. The U.S. Olympic swimming team will be:
MEN—100-meter freestyle: Gary Ilman, 21, San Jose, Calif.; Don Schollander, 18, Lake Oswego, Ore.; Mike Austin, 21, Rochester, N.Y.; Steve Clark, 21, Los Altos, Calif. (for relay). 400-meter freestyle: Roy Saari, 19, El Segundo, Calif.; Schollander; John Nelson, 16, Pompano Beach, Fla. 1,500-meter freestyle: Saari; Nelson; Bill Farley, 19, Los Angeles. 200-meter backstroke: Gary Dilley, 19, Huntington, Ind.; Jed Graef, 21, Verona, N.J.; Bob Bennett, 20, Encino, Calif. 200-meter butterfly: Fred Schmidt, 20, Northbrook, Ill.; Carl Robie, 19, Drexel Hill, Pa.; Phil Riker, 17, Paterson, N.J. 200-meter breaststroke: Chet Jastremski, 23, Toledo, Ohio; Tom Trethewey, 20, Mount Lebanon, Pa.; Wayne Anderson, 20, Santa Clara, Calif. 400-meter individual medley: Dick Roth, 16, Atherton, Calif.; Saari; Robie. 100-meter butterfly for 400-meter medley relay: Walter Richardson, 20, Hinsdale, Ill.; Larry Schulhof, 21, Muncie, Ind. 100-meter backstroke for 400-meter medley relay: Thompson Mann, 21, Chesapeake, Va.; Dick McGeagh, 20, Glendale, Calif. 100-meter breaststroke for 400-meter medley relay: Bill Craig, 19, Glendale, Calif.; Virgil Luken, 21, Minneapolis. 200-meter freestyle for 800-meter freestyle relay: Ed Townsend, 20, Santa Clara, Calif.; Bill Mettler, 17, Mesa, Ariz.; Dave Lyons, 21, Wilmette, Ill.; Mike Wall, 18, San Jose, Calif.
WOMEN—100-meter freestyle: Sharon Stouder, 15, Glendora, Calif.; Kathy Ellis, 17, Indianapolis; Jenne Hallock, 17, Commerce, Calif. 400-meter freestyle: Marilyn Ramenofsky, 18, Phoenix; Terri Stickles, 18, San Mateo, Calif.; Ginny Duenkel, 17, West Orange, N.J. 100-meter butterfly: Stouder; Ellis; Donna de Varona, 17, Santa Clara, Calif.; Sue Pitt, 17, Westfield, N.J. (for medley relay). 100-meter backstroke: Cathy Ferguson, 16, Burbank, Calif.; Duenkel; Nina Harmar, 19, Philadelphia. 200-meter breaststroke: Claudia Kolb, 14, Santa Clara, Calif.; Tammy Hazleton, 16, Silver Spring, Md.; Sandra Nitta, 15, Commerce, Calif. 400-meter individual medley: de Varona; Martha Randall, 16, Wayne, Pa.; Sharon Finneran, 18, Los Angeles. 100-meter breaststroke for 400-meter medley relay: Judy Reeder, 16, Santa Clara, Calif.; Cynthia Goyette, 18, Detroit. 100-meter freestyle for 400-meter freestyle relay: Pokey Watson, 14, Portola Valley, Calif.; Kathy Seidel, 14, Los Altos, Calif.; Lynne Allsup, 15, Bloomington, Ill.: Erika Bricker, 15, Visalia, Calif.; Patience Sherman, 18, Upper Montclair, N.J.
During the Soviet national championships, which also served as the qualifying trials for the Russian Olympic team, SVETLANA BABANINA lowered the women's world record for the 100-meter breaststroke by .7 of a second with a 1:17.2 clocking, and GEORGI PROKOPENKO nipped half a second from his own world mark in the men's 100-meter breaststroke. His time was 1:06.9.
Australia's incomparable MURRAY ROSE, who will not be going to the Olympics, set a new world 880-yard freestyle mark at the Canadian Swimming Championships in Vancouver, B.C. with an 8:55.5 clocking, 4.1 seconds better than Australian Jon Konrad's 1959 record.
Lenore Modell stepped into the English Channel at Cap Griz Nez, France and churned through the icy, tide-tossed sea for 15 hours and 27 minutes before wading ashore at Dover. The 14-year-old Sacramento, Calif. schoolgirl thus became the youngest person to ever complete the arduous Channel swim.
TENNIS—AUSTRALIA, with Margaret Smith and Lesley Turner, gained the world women's team championship by defeating the U.S. 2-1 in Philadelphia.
TRACK & FIELD—TERJE PEDERSEN, a Norwegian dental student, hurled the javelin 300 feet 11½ inches in an Oslo meet to break his own world record by 15 feet 1½ inches. It was the first time that the formidable 300-foot mark in javelin competition had been reached.
WEIGHT LIFTING—The world's strongest man, four-time world champion YURI VLASOV, smashed all of the four world heavyweight records by lifting 432 pounds in the press, 376 in the snatch and 475 in the clean and jerk for a total of 1,283 pounds (1,278 pounds will be the official listing) in qualifying for the Russian Olympic team in Moscow.
MILEPOSTS—RETIRED: The major leagues' best-known statistician, ALLAN ROTH, 47, who devised invaluable, intricate pitching charts for the Los Angeles Dodgers, after 17 years with the team, because he is tired of making road trips.
DIED: Stewart H. Holbrook, 71, outdoor writer and historian, author of more than 20 books and innumerable magazine articles, whose works pungently describe the forests and rivers of the Pacific Northwest, of a cerebral hemorrhage, in Portland, Ore.
