A roundup of the week Aug. 9-15

BOWLING—RANDY LIGHTFOOT defeated Paul McCordic 243-216 to win the $95,000 Denver Open.

GOLF—TIM NORRIS shot a 25-under-par 259, six strokes better than Ray Floyd and Hubert Green, to win the $300,000 Sammy Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open.

Beth Daniel ran away with a $125,000 LPGA event in Jericho, N.Y., shooting a 12-under-par 276 and finishing eight strokes ahead of Martha Hansen and Ayako Okamoto.

Heather Farr defeated Caroline Keggi 2 and 1 to win the 34th U.S. Girls' Junior Championship in Greeley, Colo.

HARNESS RACING—GENGHIS KHAN, driven by Bill O'Donnell, paced the mile in a world-record 1:51[4/5] in a special non-betting race on the Meadow-lands' mile track. The 6-year-old broke by two-fifths of a second the mark set by Niatross at Hollywood Park in 1980.

HORSE RACING—MAKE MINE CASH ($40.00), Jerry Nicodemus in the irons, covered 440 yards in 21.86 to win the $1,183,000 Special Effort Futurity for 2-year-old quarter horses at Los Alamitos. He beat Sail On Bunny by a head.

Timely Writer ($2.60), Jeff Fell in the saddle, scored a half-length victory over Salem End Road in the $78,300 Yankee Handicap at Suffolk Downs. The 3-year-old, sidelined by an intestinal disorder less than two weeks before the Kentucky Derby, returned to action with an impressive 1:41[1/5] over the one-mile-and-70-yard course.

MOTOR SPORTS—RICK MEARS drove his Penske-Cosworth to victory in the third and final 500-mile race of the CART season, the Pocono 500 in Long Pond, Pa., finishing two seconds ahead of his Penske teammate, Kevin Cogan. Mears averaged 145.88 mph around the Pocono International Speedway's 2.5-mile tri-oval.

Elio De Angelis, in a Lotus, beat Keke Rosberg, in a Williams, by .125 seconds to win the Austrian Grand Prix in Zeltweg. De Angelis averaged 138 mph for 53 laps of the 3.69-mile Osterreichring circuit.

SOCCER—Although a fortnight remains in the 32-game season, jousting for the eight playoff slots came to an abrupt end as the last three pretenders—Tampa Bay, San Jose and Chicago—were unhorsed. The Rowdies, who in eight years in the NASL have never missed the postseason tourney, fell before the Manic charge of Forward Alan Willey, whose two goals contributed largely to a 3-0 Montreal win. Willey's second score was the 100th of his 7-year NASL career; only four others have reached the century mark. Meanwhile, lumbering Portland, long since stricken from the lists, punctured the Earthquakes' hopes with a 2-0 victory in San Jose. And the Sting, last year's Soccer Bowl champion, completed its abdication with a 3-1 loss to Eastern Division champion New York. Earlier in the week, the Cosmos absorbed their first home defeat of the season, 4-1 by Toronto, as Blizzard Striker David Byrne scored his eighth goal of the year and boosted his season point total to a club-record 37. Seattle, behind the two goals of Mark Peterson, thundered into the Western Division lead with a 4-0 dismantling of Fort Lauderdale, leader by only a five-point margin in the South after a 2-1 defeat by second place Tulsa. Woeful Edmonton (11-20, 93 points) mounted a counterattack of sorts, winning what was probably its last home game, 1-0 over Vancouver, in front of 2,631 fans. The team is likely to fold or—if the quest for a white knight succeeds—be sold.

TENNIS—Fourth-seeded VITAS GERULAITIS upset defending champion Ivan Lendl 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 to win the $300,000 Canadian Open in Toronto.

Johan Kriek defeated Roscoe Tanner 6-0, 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 to win the $300,000 California Classic, a WCT event, in Carlsbad, Calif.

Sandy Mayer defeated Robert Van't Hof 7-5, 6-3 in the finals of the $75,000 Western Tennis Classic in Cleveland.

Chris Evert Lloyd won the $100,000 Atlanta Women's Classic with a 6-3, 6-1 triumph over Susan Mascarin.

TRACK & FIELD—JURGEN HINGSEN set a world decathlon record of 8,723 points in the All-West German championships at Ulm, surpassing by 16 points the record established by Daley Thompson of England in May. Hingsen's marks: 100-meter dash (10.74), long jump (25'9"), shotput (52'6"), high jump (7'¾"), 400 (47.65), 110 hurdles (14.64), discus (147'4½"), pole vault (15'1½"), javelin (207'¼"), 1,500 (4:15.15).

Dave Volz pole-vaulted 18'10" in Nice, France to surpass by one-half inch his own American record set on June 26 in Durham, N.C.

Bob Roggy broke his own American javelin record, set in San Jose on April 17, by 2'5" with a toss of 309'11" in Kouvola, Finland.

WEIGHTLIFTING—DANIEL NUNEZ of Cuba set a world featherweight record by snatching 299.2 pounds at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Havana. The previous mark of 298.1 was held by Bugoguslav Manolov of Bulgaria.

WRESTLING—Soviet wrestlers dominated the World Freestyle Championships in Edmonton, Canada, winning gold medals in seven of the 10 weight classes. Individual winners were, from the U.S.S.R., SERGUY KORNILAEV (105.5 pounds), twins ANATOLY (125.5) and SERGUY (136.5) BELOGLAZOV, MIKHAIL KHARACHURA (149.5), TAIMURAZ DZGOEV (180.5), ILIA MATE (220) and SALAMAN KHASIMIKOV (220+), and, from East Germany, HARTMUT REICH (114.5) and UWE NEUPERT (198); LEE KEMP (163) was the lone American gold medalist (page 20).

MILEPOSTS—DROPPED: By the Pay 'N Pak Corporation, its seven-year unlimited hydroplane sponsorship, after a near-fatal accident during the Aug. 8 Emerald Cup competition in Seattle. Pay 'N Pak driver John Walters was in serious condition following the three-boat collision on Lake Washington.

FIRED: By the Houston Astros, Manager BILL VIRDON, 51, after the Astros had slipped to fifth place in the National League West with a 49-62 record. In seven seasons under Virdon, the Astros had a 544-522 record and won the divisional championship in 1980. First Base Coach BOB LILLIS, 52, was named interim manager.

PURCHASED: By the Milwaukee Brewers, for a reported $200,000, the contract of Texas Rangers Pitcher DOC MEDICH, 33; by the Montreal Expos, Milwaukee Brewer Pitcher RANDY LERCH, 27, for an undisclosed sum.

SIGNED: By the Chicago Blitz of the USFL, 14-year NFL Quarterback GREG LANDRY, 35, to a two-year contract whose terms were not disclosed.

By the Minnesota North Stars, Right Wing BRIAN BELLOWS, 17, to a five-year contract reportedly worth up to $200,000 per year.

SYNDICATED: By Henryk de Kwiatkowski, at a record value of $36.4 million, CONQUISTADOR CIELO, the 3-year-old colt who has won seven consecutive races. De Kwiatkowski paid $150,000 for the horse as a yearling.

DIED: SALVADOR SANCHEZ, 23, WBC featherweight champion who was widely regarded as one of the world's finest boxers; in a three-vehicle collision; near Querétaro, Mexico. Sanchez, who beat Danny Lopez in February 1980 for the featherweight crown, had a professional record of 43-1-1, with 31 knockouts (page 10).