MERCEDES driver Klaus Ludwig, retiring at the end of the season, won his last European sportscar race, the FIA GT championship, with Brazilian teammate Ricardo Zontain.
The 48-year-old German's triumph turned the tables on championship-leading Mercedes teammates Bernd Schneider and Mark Webber who finished second, 32.054 seconds behind, and narrowed the title race to just three points. "It's a very emotional feeling," Ludwig said.
"The car was simply perfect." Mercedes have already clinched the manufacturers' title for the second year and have won every race this season.
Best marathon
BRAZIL'S Ronaldo da Costa ran the fastest marathon in history, clocking 2 hours, 6 minutes, 5 seconds to break a 10-year-old record by 45 seconds at the Berlin Marathon.
The 28-year-old bettered the previous world best of 2:06:50 set by Ethiopia's Belayneh Densimo at Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1988. "I wanted to run under 2:08, but when I saw how good the conditions were, I just went for it," Da Costa said after running on a cool, sunny and windless day.
Following Da Costa across the finish line were three Kenyans. Josephat Kiprono was runner-up at 2:07:26, followed by Samson Kandie at 2:09:11 and Reuben Chebutich at 2:10:39. Belgium's Marleen Renders won the women's event at 2:25:22, nearly three minutes ahead of runner-up and first-time marathoner Susan Chepkemei of Kenya (2:28:19).
Three-time Berlin winner Renata Kokowska of Poland finished third at 2:31:54. The race had about 28,000 starters -- 4,000 more than last year -- making it the third largest marathon, behind London and New York. It was watched by an estimated one million spectators.
Making millions, again?
MIKE Tyson, basically broke despite earning more than $100 million in his last six fights, could be back in the ring and earning millions by the end of November.
If a psychiatrist gives the OK and finds that Tyson is able to fight again without snapping, the former champion could be fighting as early as late November at the same Las Vegas casino where he bit Evander Holyfield's ear and was banished from the sport he once dominated. "If I ever get reinstated again, I'll probably make $300 million," Tyson said.
Though Tyson made more than $100 million in official purses in six fights ending in the aborted title fight with Holyfield, he is now basically broke and owes the Internal Revenue Service $13 million in back taxes.
Tyson's attorney, Dale Kinsella, introduced figures at a meeting of the Nevada Athletic Commission showing Tyson ended up with only $5.2 million out of the $30 million purse he received to fight Holyfield in their second bout.
Holyfield tested
EVANDER Holyfield gave his hometown fans what they wanted. Vaughn Bean gave a lot of people what they didn't expect. Holyfield, looking at times like an old fighter, knocked Bean down in the 10th round and won a unanimous decision over the scrappy challenger before 41,357 in the Georgia Dome. While Bean was fighting only his eighth opponent with a winning record, Holyfield showed the guile that comes from long years of experience in top-flight competition.
Bean was pushing Holyfield into the ropes late in the 10th round when the champion suddenly side-stepped Bean and flung him into the ropes with his left arm. Bean was hung up in the ropes when Holyfield landed a right to the side of the head that dropped him for a seven-count. "He hit me when I was down," Bean said, although he was still on his feet when the punch landed.
"The ref didn't do his job. I know I was on his home turf. He hit me right on the temple. The ref could have stepped in." "I've got to take advantage of every opportunity I get because he's a good fighter," said Holyfield, who will be 36 on 19 October. "I just turned and hit him. That's part of the boxing game."
Prince down
GERMANY'S Dariusz Michalczewski knocked England's Mark Prince into the ropes with a hard left in the eighth round to defend his WBO light heavyweight title. Michalczewski, 38-0 with 31 knockouts, finished off a staggering Prince with the roundhouse shot to the chin with three seconds left in the round in his 13th defence.
The Polish-born German, who has had four different world titles, seconds earlier buckled Prince's knees with a hard right to the head. The knockout blow spun his opponent around before he fell face down into the ropes.
"I wasn't surprised by the way he hit -- but I thought I could win anyhow,'' said Prince. Michalczewski briefly held the WBA, IBF and WBO titles after beating American Virgil Hill two years ago, and once held the WBO cruiserweight crown.
Alderman dies
FREDERICK Alderman, the oldest Olympic gold medalist in track and field in the United States, is dead at 93. He died of congestive heart failure at The Mews personal care home.
Alderman won both the National Collegiate Athletic Association 100- and 220-yard dashes in 1927 while competing for Michigan State.
In the 1928 Olympics at Amsterdam, he ran on the US 1,600-meter relay team, helping the Americans win a gold medal and set a world record. During the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Alderman helped carry the torch.
Fed Cup for Spain
ARANTXA Sanchez-Vicario and Conchita Martinez won their doubles match in straight sets to lift Spain to a 3-2 victory over Switzerland and collect Spain's fifth Fed Cup crown. Sanchez-Vicario and Martinez defeated world No. 1 Martina Hingis and Patty Schnyder 6-0, 6-2, in a tie-breaking doubles match that took under an hour.
The two veterans figured in all four of Spain's previous titles in 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1995. The pair have led Spain to the finals seven times in the last eight years. "This was probably one of the best wins of all," said Sanchez-Vicario, still breathing hard from the effort. "We played one of the best teams and worked so hard to get the victory. Viva Espagna! I'm so happy!''
The two steamrolled over Hingis and an exhausted Schnyder. "It's very disappointing, especially in front of your home crowd,'' said Hingis, winner of all four Grand Slam doubles titles this year. "But Spain is a very tough, experienced team. They've been playing forever."
Pete's a "crybaby"
US OPEN tennis champion Pat Rafter has threatened to quit the Davis Cup if captain John Newcombe or coach Tony Roche step down because of a feud with losing finalist Mark Philippoussis. "If those guys go I'm going to resign, too,'' Rafter said.
The world No. 2 also gave his rival Pete Sampras a serve, describing him as a "crybaby", and saying Sampras had taken his last two defeats by the Australian hard. "He's become a bit of a crybaby but it doesn't worry me,'' said Rafter.
Sampras had said that the difference between him and Rafter was "10 Grand Slams'' after being beaten by the Australian in August. "It's only nine now,'' Rafter said.
Amateur driver killed
ONE WEEK before the final Formula One event of the season to be held there, a German amateur driver was killed at the Nuerburgring track.
Wolfgang Scholz, manager of an insurance company in Hannover, died on the way to the hospital after his Volkswagen Golf rammed into a wall at the track's North Loop during a local German race. Onlookers said Scholz was travelling at 150 kph (90 mph) when his auto struck the wall after a collision with another auto. The second driver wasn't injured.
The cause for the German driver losing control of his vehicle wasn't immediately known.
