By Times Staff and Wire Reports
Published December 15, 2003
COLORADO SPRINGS - Sasha Cohen and Evgeni Plushenko left the Grand Prix finals Saturday night without gold medals and with questions, including:
How far have the dominant skaters of the early season slipped heading into their most important events? Were they as prepared as they needed to be for the championship of the Grand Prix series, which each won in 2002?
For Cohen, there also is the imposing shadow of Michelle Kwan on the horizon. Next up for Cohen is the U.S. Championship in Atlanta next month, and seven-time champ Kwan likely will be the favorite - especially after Cohen fell three times in two days here and was soundly beaten by Japan's Fumie Suguri.
"I need a little bit of a break," Cohen said after her first defeat in the Grand Prix series in two years. She won two events and the overall title last year, then took three competitions in 2003.
Plushenko skated with a torn meniscus in his knee but said he wasn't restricted. Instead, he was victimized by his ambition and the new points system. In losing to Canada's Emanuel Sandhu, a late replacement for Tim Goebel after not qualifying for the finals, Plushenko had some complaints.
When Plushenko cut a triple axel to a double and skipped a triple salchow, his technical marks dropped. Though Plushenko, the 2002 Olympic silver medalist, hit two huge quads in combination, the seven judges whose marks counted on the panel of 11 penalized him enough for his miscues that he lost by 3.11 points.
"I am not so happy with the result," Plushenko said. "I am so happy with my skate. I did a good job and hit two quads, and the new combination I think nobody has done before." Plushenko's quadruple toe loop-double loop was the first of its kind in competition.
GIANT SLALOM: Finland's Kalle Palander (2 minutes, 30.57 seconds) won his first World Cup race at Alta Badia, Italy. Bode Miller, who won the season's first two giant slaloms, finished 1.12 back in fourth behind Italy's Davide Simoncelli and France's Frederic Covili.
BOXING: Spinks, Hopkins shine
Cory Spinks, the son of Leon Spinks, won a majority decision over favored Ricardo Mayorga to win the undisputed welterweight title Saturday night in Atlantic City, N.J. Bernard Hopkins, making his 17th middleweight title defense, pounded out a lopsided win over William Joppy. Hopkins won 11 of 12 rounds on two scorecards and 10 rounds on the third.
Spinks frustrated Mayorga from the opening bell and took advantage of two point deductions to add Mayorga's WBA and WBC titles to his IBF 147-pound title. The loss derailed a planned March 13 fight between 154-pound champion Shane Mosley and Mayorga. Spinks and Hopkins said they want to face Mosley.
LACY STAYS UNBEATEN: Jeff Lacy of St. Petersburg retained his NABF/USBA super-middleweight titles with an eighth-round knockout over NABF light heavyweight champion Donnell Wiggins in Manchester, England. Lacy (16-0, 13 KOs) dropped Wiggins with a big overhand right hand, and the bout was stopped moments later at 2:33. Wiggins dropped to 20-3-2.
GREYHOUNDS: Kennels close in victories
Charter kennel posted the most wins during Derby Lane's opening week. Trainer Rodney Cooley had 13 wins and won the Puppy Preview with Bow Heater. Abernathy had 12 wins; Ryan Farms and Wayne Ward each had 10. Cahill & O'Connor's Lookalike set the fastest five-sixteenths-mile time (30.75) of the season Thursday night. Thorne kennel's Oshkosh Drifter had the season-best three-eighths-mile time (37.90) Saturday.
SOCCER: Argentines win Cup
Boca Juniors won their third Intercontinental Cup, defeating AC Milan 3-1 in a penalty-kick shootout after the teams tied at 1 in Yokohama, Japan. Alfredo Cascini made the deciding goal for the Argentine club. The Cup matches the top club teams from South America and Europe. Boca also won in 1977 and 2000.
ET CETERA
BOWLING: Patrick Healey won his first major title, the PBA Tournament of Champions in Uncasville, Conn., defeating veteran Randy Pedersen 222-188.
HORSES: Joe Judice, last year's leading rider at Tampa Bay Downs, had six wins during the opening weekend. Judice won four races Sunday aboard Beach Bertie ($3.80 mutuel), Gebb's Glory ($13), Smoke Stack Jack ($5) and Raise Her Flag ($7). Jockey T.D. Houghton, who was sidelined 14 months by injury, also won twice.
PENTATHLON: Britain's Georgina Harland won the world title in Athens, Greece, to qualify for the 2004 Olympics. Harland secured her victory in the 1.8-mile cross-country race. She finished 10 minutes behind race winner Michelle Kelly of the United States but picked up enough points to pass Ukraine's Tatyana Tereshchuk 5,384 to 5,376. Tereshchuk also qualified.
RODEO: Dan Mortensen matched Casey Tibbs' 44-year-old record of six world saddle bronc titles, finishing the 10-round National Finals in Las Vegas with $219,999.
SWIMMING: Pieter van den Hoogenband led the Dutch 200-meter freestyle relay team to a world record at the European Short Course Championships in Dublin, Ireland. Hoogenband, Mark Veens, Johan Kenkhuis and Gijs Damen finished in 1:25.55, topping the 2001 mark of 1:25.87 by a U.S. team.
