Back in style
TIGER WOODS completed a triumphant return to the PGA Tour on Sunday, firing a four-under par 68 to take a four-stroke victory at the Buick Invitational in San Diego.The world No 1, playing his first tournament since undergoing knee surgery in December, finished 16 under par to take the $810,000 prize on his 2003 season debut.
"I got better each day," Woods said. "It was just a matter of getting back into a rhythm. I haven't hit many money shots lately. Not like this."
He said he was delighted with how his fitness held up on his return to competitive action. "After 27 holes when my leg wasn't sore, I knew it was a good sign," said Woods.
It was his 35th career PGA title and the first since winning the World Golf Championship event last September in Kilkenny, Ireland.
Woods, who won there in 1999 but finished second to Phil Mickelson in 2000, had five birdies and just one bogey, that coming on the seventh hole.
The superb showing denied Carl Pettersson his first career victory. The Swedish-born player shot a three-under 69 to finish seconds at 276 in only his second tour event.
Woods also finished ahead of playing partner and home favourite Mickelson, who finished six strokes back at 10-under 278.
Woods' best shot of the round, at Torrey Pines' difficult south course, was his second on the par four 15th sinking a 15-footer for a birdie.
Amazing Agassi
ANDRE AGASSI cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over sixth seed Davide Sanguinetti of Italy to claim a record-equalling fifth title at the $380,000 Siebel Open in San Jose, California.The win saw him draw level with John McEnroe for the most tournament wins in the Bay Area in the Open era beginning in 1968. And his 12th successive win in 2003 -- he has dropped only two sets all year -- helped him to his 56th career tournament victory.
"For me, this feeling only gets better," Agassi told spectators before accepting his trophy. "Every title here has been more special. I saw the ball so well all week. I want to be the person who wins this title the most. It feels great. Between now and a year ago a lot of questions have been answered and I couldn't be happier where things are."
Sanguinetti, seeking his third career title, complained about several tight line calls, but could have little argument with the result. "I thought he was going to miss a little bit more, but he didn't miss at all," Sanguinetti said. "I said sooner or later he's going to miss, but the time didn't come. When he's playing like that, he's the best. He's hitting the ball on the line, he's perfect, he's like a machine."
After losing the first two games of the match, Agassi lost just one more game in the first set. He won the first three games of the second set before Sanguinetti held serve, then won three straight games to claim the title. He also won the tournament in 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1998.
Brother-sister act
CROATIA's Ivica Kostelic has won the men's slalom at the final event of the World Ski Championships. He emulated his sister Janica by claiming the slalom gold -- and his first major race medal -- at St Moritz in Switzerland on Sunday.It is the first time a brother and sister have both won gold medals at a major Alpine skiing championship.
In an exciting finale, 23-year-old Kostelic saw his huge first run lead all but wiped out as the top 30 competitors raced in reverse order.
However, he clung on to win the gold despite making a number of mistakes on the rutted piste.
Russian final in Qatar
SECOND-SEEDED Anastasia Myskina of Russia has won her third career title, beating fifth- seeded countrywoman Elena Likhovtseva 6-3, 6- 1 in less than an hour in the $170,000 Qatar Open."I played well and I'm very happy that I won the title," Myskina said. "I didn't have a specific game plan, I just tried to win points as they came. The first set was a bit tight, but after I broke Elena in the sixth game [of the first set] it was easy going for me. But I must say, the second set was not all that easy as the score-line may suggest," she said. "I had to fight for every point."
Likhovtseva said she had no answer to Myskina's attacking tennis.
The 21-year-old Myskina, a quarter-finalist at last year's Qatar Open, banked on her double- handed baseline game to stop Likhovtseva's attempt to win her third WTA Tour title. Myskina's previous two titles came at Bahia (2002) and Palermo (1999) while Likhovtseva's past trophies were won at Gold Coast (1997) and Montpellier (1993).
Walk record
GILLIAN O'SULLIVAN got the Irish Indoor Athletics Championships at Belfast's Odyssey Arena off to a glorious start by setting a world record in the three-kilometre walk.The Kerry woman set a new world's best of 11 minutes, 35.33 seconds which took five seconds off the previous record held by Romania's Claudia Ivan.
O'Sullivan is also the current world five- kilometre record holder.
End of Wilkins
BRITISH discus thrower Perris Wilkins has been banned for life from competition following a second doping offence committed in April 2002."Given that this is a second doping offence committed by Perris Wilkins, he is now therefore ineligible to take part in athletics events in the UK and abroad for life," said UK Athletics. Wilkins was initially given a two-year ban in July 2002 after testing positive. The case was then sent to an independent disciplinary committee for a final verdict.
How old are you?
THE KENYAN government and the Kenyan FA are on a collision course following the decision of the sport's minister to disband the national under-17 team after discovering some of the players were over-age.Najib Balala said two players, Alfred Ongoli and Francis Ochieng, confessed to him that they were over 20 years old. Balala said he believed others were also too old and ordered the team to withdraw from qualifying for the African championship.
But the FA Kenyan Secretary-General Hussein Swaleh said they had done nothing wrong. "As far as we're concerned we're innocent," he said.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 20 - 26 February 2003 (Issue No. 626)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/626/sp4.htm