FORT BENNING, Ga. - Matt Emmons became the first American to qualify for one Olympics in three shooting events when he won the three-position competition at the U.S. trials here.
Emmons, of Browns Mills, N.J., dominated the rifle event in which shots are fired while prone, standing and kneeling. He got 3,717.1 points, more than 30 ahead of runner-up Mike Anti of Winterville, N.C. Both earned berths in the three-position competition at the Athens Olympics.
Last week, Emmons and Anti took both spots in the prone rifle event. Emmons also finished second in air rifle.
In men's air pistol, Jason Turner of Rochester, N.Y., and Darryl Szarenski of Saginaw, Mich., earned Olympic berths, as did Elizabeth Callahan of Upper Marlboro, Md., and Rebecca Snyder of Grand Junction, Colo., in women's sport pistol.
TICKET SALES: More than half the tickets for the Athens Games remain unsold, with corporate sponsors buying far fewer seats than four years ago, organizers said. The figures seemed to reinforce some of the worst fears for the Aug. 13-29 Games: security worries and a shaky global economic recovery. A total of 5.3-million tickets were set aside - 3-million to the public and 2.3-million for International Olympic Committee officials, sponsors and others - but just 1.83-million have been sold.
DOPING: Russian sprinter Anastasiya Kapachinskaya was banned for two years after testing positive for a steroid at the indoor world championships, where she won the 200-meter gold. She said she will not appeal the ruling that will prevent her from competing in Athens and will cooperate with the World Anti-Doping Agency in the fight against performance-enhancing drugs.
SOCCER: Top coaches being wooed
Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez, whose Porto and Valencia teams took Europe's top trophies this season, may be about to join English Premiership teams yearning for silverware. Mourinho quit as coach of Porto and will join Chelsea by Saturday, the Jornal de Noticias reported. Porto officials couldn't be reached for comment. Benitez is mulling his options after leaving Valencia on Tuesday. United Kingdom papers said he'll join Liverpool. Mourinho, 41, and Benitez, 44, led their teams to the Champions League and UEFA Cup titles, respectively, as well as the Portugal and Spain league titles.
WORLD CUP: Brazil and Argentina, with seven World Cup titles and a storied rivalry between them, meet in a qualifier today. Argentina is first and Brazil third in the South American qualifying group. Argentina is trying to redeem itself after the 2002 World Cup when it was eliminated in the first round.
PENTATHLON: Russia beat U.S. for gold
Russia won its first gold in the men's relay at the world modern pentathlon championships in Moscow, with the United States rallying to finish second. The American team of Chad Senior, Vakhtang Iagorashvili and Scott Christie was flawless in equestrian, eighth in shooting, second in fencing and sixth in the swimming relay. South Korea won the bronze. The team relay features shooting, fencing, a swimming relay of 300 meters, team riding over a 350/450-meter course with 10 hurdles in a three-minute limit, and a cross-country relay, all in one day.
ET CETERA
CYCLING: Belgium's Tom Boonen surged ahead in the final sprint to win the second stage of the Tour of Germany in Wangen. Michael Rich of Germany retained the overall lead, 25 seconds ahead of Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner.
OBITUARY: Former boxer Magne Havnaa, who won the WBO cruiserweight world championship with a fifth-round knockout of American Richard Pultz in 1990, drowned in a boating accident near his home in Norway over the weekend, police said. He was 40.
