Sports: Sports digest

Sports digest

By Compiled from Times wires

Player gets jail time for punching ref A soccer player who punched a referee in the head during a game received a 15-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to assault and battery Thursday in Muskegon, Mich.

Chung Jung, 34, of Muskegon also was ordered to serve one year of probation and fined $300. In addition, Jung was banned from the league and from the Norton Pines Athletic Club in Norton Shores.

The referee, Frank Roder, 51, said he insisted that Jung be prosecuted to help curb unsportsmanlike conduct.

HORSES: Despite drawing the outside No. 8 post position, Astreos was made the 2-1 morning-line favorite for Monday's $331,350 Cane Pace at Freehold (N.J.) Raceway. Tyberwood, the 1999 juvenile pacing colt of the year, drew the rail and was made the 5-2 second choice. The rest of the field in post position order: With Held, Joe Pavia Jr., 8-1; Powerful Toy, Luc Ouellette, 5-1; Armbro Trench, Cat Manzi, 12-1; Ain't No Stopn Him, John Campbell, 8-1; Doc Vinall, Michel Lachance, 20-1. ... Gratiaen spoiled Image Maker's bid for a New York Triple Crown sweep, winning the $176,700 Albany Handicap for New York-bred 3-year-olds at Saratoga. Gratiaen, ridden by Edgar Prado, ran 11/8 miles in 1:50, and paid $12.60, $8.20 and $6.30. He earned $106,020 for Jerome Brody's Gallagher's Stud. Image Maker was fourth, losing a chance to earn a $250,000 bonus offered for winning Belmont's Mike Lee, Finger Lakes' New York Derby and the Albany. ... The field for today's Spinaway Stakes presents youngsters whose potential appears considerable despite the absence of four runners. The 109th running of the $200,000, Grade I Spinaway is Saratoga's prime showcase for 2-year-old fillies. Mark Hennig's talented trio of Gold Mover, Raging Fever and With Ability, and Todd Pletcher's Harmony Lodge have been impressive in their brief careers. Because of injuries, or as in Raging Fever's case the trainer's preference, a meeting of these fillies will have to wait until the Belmont fall meeting. With all starters carrying 121 pounds, and from the rail out, the field is: Nasty Storm, Mike Smith; Seeking It All, Aaron Gryder; Stormy Pick, Jose C. Ferrer; Hit Gold, Robbie Davis; Out of Sync, Marlon St. Julien; Weekend Gold, Pat Day; Look of the Lynx, Richard Migliore; Queen Carson, Shane Sellers and Two Item Limit, Edgar Prado.

BOXING: Johnny Tapia will try to avenge the only loss of his career when he takes on Paulie Ayala on Oct. 13 in a non-title fight of bantamweight champions. The 10-round bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas will be televised on Showtime. Ayala (30-1, 12 knockouts), of Fort Worth, Texas, won the WBA 118-pound title when he upset Tapia (48-1-2), of Albuquerque, N.M., on a 12-round decision last year. Tapia since has won the WBO bantamweight title.

CYCLING: Paolo Bossoni won the sixth stage of the Tour of Spain in a sprint finish and Alex Zulle retained the overall lead for the sixth straight day, with a 1:09 advantage over Abraham Olano. About 6 miles from the finish a massive fall was costly for many key riders, such as Pavel Tonkov, captain of Mapei, and Fernando Escartin. Both dropped 43 seconds in the overall standings. Bossoni, Giovanni Lombardi and Oscar Freire had a time of 3:27:16 in the 94-mile course between Benidorm and Valencia.

AUTOS: NASCAR and Texas Motor Speedway have agreed to lengthen the Oct. 13 Craftsman Truck race to 248 miles, an increase of 62 miles and equal to the length of the 167-lap June race at the track that was won by Greg Biffle. That means an additional 42 laps from October and dictates a change in the name of the race from the O'Reilly 300 to the O'Reilly 400.

OBITUARY: Theodore "Ted" Deglin, a longtime New York publicist, died at New York Hospital on Aug. 15. He was 92. Deglin was the director of public relations for Madison Square Garden from 1935 until entering the Army in 1942. After World War II, Deglin founded the public relations firm Deglin-Woods, which later became Ted Deglin and Associates. He was the founder of WBAI-FM and a member of the board of directors of the USO for the New York metropolitan area from 1961-95. Deglin, a native of Philadelphia, is survived by his wife, Ann Reirden, twin daughters and six grandchildren.