The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 49

40 The Sydney Morning Herald Monday, October 14, 1991 Sport Hardman gambles to tame typhoon waves SPORT BRIEFS SURFING ,4 Coast veteran Glen Winton in the quarter-finals and Newport qualifier Mike Rommelse in the semifinals to set up his fourth appearance in a final this year. Anderson, still recovering from early season surgery on a broken ankle, and without a major sponsor, claimed his title shot with a quarter-final victory against Dee Why teenager Shane Herring and a semis triumph over Bronte's Rod Kerr. Damien Hardman has earned a new nickname of Blackjack after taming typhoon surf to win the $125,000 Miyazaki Pro in Japan. The typhoon swept through the Prefecture on Japan's southern tip last week, whipping up waves nudging six metres. Hardman, his eye Firmly on this year's world professional title, rose to the challenge to win all his heats decisively including yesterday's final against fellow Narrabeen rider Greg Anderson.

ing his $27,000 winner's cheque and 1,400 Grand Prix points. "Every paddle out was like an aerobics torture session I'm so glad I was fully fit. "It was a real gamble you had to time your paddle out just right, be in the right position to make sure you could even catch a ride rather than have a tonne of water collapse on you, and because there was so much foam most of the time you had no idea what your opponent was doing." Wollongong professional and world tour wit Robbie Page bestowed the Blackjack sobriquet, explaining that Hardman "got the numbers right every "What else could you possibly call someone who got the better of a typhoon called Number 21?" said Page. "I've always thought Damien was a little dark bastard anyway. "Of course, that's because I've never beaten him." Hardman outpointed Central GRAHAM CASSIDY The tournament was a test of stamina, as competitors were forced to paddle through more than 200m of turbulent white water to reach the take-off point after each ride to shore.

"That's the toughest contest I've ever been in," said an exhausted but happy Hardman after collect no Hardman was in better rhythm Pigg tch for una Ste wart5 dash tit GOLD COAST: A last-minute surge by Miles Stewart helped the Australian defeat US favourite Mike Pigg and New Zealander Rick Wells in the Triathlon World Championship here yesterday. Stewart completed the 51.5km swim, cycle and running course in lhr 48min, only 2s ahead of the US competitor and the New Zealander, who tied for second place following the final sprint. Stewart said his early sprint to catch both Wells and Pigg almost cost him victory. "I knew exactly how much I had left, and I knew how long I could hold it for, but I also thought the finish was a bit closer than what it was," Stewart said. "I think I timed it wrong.

When I did close up the gap I used up everything to do that and I still had to keep on running. I was expecting someone to come past me really hard, but they didn't." As one of Australia's most talented sprint triathletes, Stewart was able to foil the powerful US cyclist on the bike leg, keeping in touch with him over the entire 40km. A disappointed Pigg said he had tried several times during the cycling leg to shake off the main bunch of Wells, Stewart and fellow American Harold Robinson, but was unable to do so TRIATHLON because of the triathlon's flat, fast course. "It was really hard to do what I wanted to do on this course," Pigg said. "I needed a hill." Attempts by the US athlete to lose Stewart and Wells in the final run were also to no avail.

Wells, like Pigg, said he had nothing left to throw at the 20-year-old Australian in the final run for the line. "I gave my all and I just had nothing left," the ex-Commonwealth Games swimmer said. "I was pretty happy after last year when he finished 10th in front of Pigg, and I was first after the swim today." Harold Robinson of the US finished fourth, with the next highest placed Australians, Mark Dragan and Stephen Foster, finishing in seventh and eighth. Australian Brad Bevan, one of the race favourites, had a disappointing event, finishing well down the field. In the women's event, Canadians Joanne Ritchie and Terri Smithross took the top two places, finishing the same 51.5km course 12 minutes behind the leading men.

Australian Michellie Jones finished in third place. seals TENNIS final, took control from the start with his serve-and-volley tennis, taking the first set 6-3. But Rostagno, world-ranked 22, hit back by serving and returning superbly to seize command of the second set. The US player held all his serves with four aces and nine service winners, and broke Edberg's service in the fourth and sixth games to take the set 6-1 in 23 minutes. "I felt I played a good second set.

And also I had a very good beginning to the third set," Rostagno said. "In the second set, he started to serve a lot better and I lost a little bit of speed on my serve," Edberg said. "And he started to hit a lot of good returns that really changed the match." In the sixth game of the final SHOOTING BRISBANE: Australia's shooting hope for the Barcelona Olympics, Lynn-Marie Freh, was right on target at the Masters Games yesterday. Freh won the gold medal in the 35-44 age women's sports pistol competition with a final 581 points of a possible 600. She heads the rankings in Australian women's shooting, and the 36-year-old from Brisbane is a strong medal chance in Barcelona.

Second in the event was another Queenslander, Hazel Jeary, of Elimbah, with 508. RUGBY CARDIFF, Sunday: Japan are reluctant, but still prepared to host the next Rugby World Cup in 1995. Shiggy Konno, Japanese team manager and Rugby Federation chairman, said yesterday his country would only consider holding the event "if there was no other "With all these English-speaking nations coming over and the lack of English-speaking officials, it would be chaotic," he said. "Interest now is for the next World Cup in South Africa. That's probably where all Rugby people want to go." ATHLETICS NAIROBI, Sunday: Members of the International Olympic Committee have called for athletes caught using performance-enhancing drugs to be banned for life.

Yesterday's call was led by Peter Talberg, the Finnish head of the IOC's athletics commission. "The IOC should now enforce the life ban agreed on 10 years ago," he said. SQUASH NEW YORK, Sunday: Jahangir Khan, the British Open squash champion, and Rodney Martin, the world champion, could meet again here this week for the first time since their controversial World Open final two months ago. Then, the brilliantly gifted Australian conjured a surprising triumph against a background of Pakistani allegations about rough tactics and bad referee-ing. This time, they should meet in the semi-final of the US Open, which starts here tomorrow at a Brooklyn casino.

EQUESTRIAN Andrew Hoy and his famous brown gelding Kiwi virtually clinched a berth in Australia's equestrian team for the Barcelona Olympics by winning the Yalumba Wines International three-day event at Werribee Park yesterday. The 32-year-old horseman from Culcairn, NSW, and his 16.2 hand champion gave a near-faultless display in yesterday's show-jumping round. They cleared al! but one of the rails of a tricky course devised by Victorian John Vall-ance to win the Advanced Section with a final score of 53.20 penalty points. MOTOR SPORT Perth's Jeff Leisk won the inaugural Motorcycle Masters bike championship at Eastern Creek Raceway yesterday. Riding the newly designed Leisk beat arch-rivals Shawn Giles and Anthony Gobert, who took second and third places respectively.

The inaugural Motorcycle Masters was conceived to find the best all-round bike rider in Australia. SHOW JUMPING LONDON, Sunday: Ludger beerbaum, German Olympic team gold medallist, completed the only triple clear round and won the grand prix event at the Horse of the Year Show yesterday. Beerbaum was the last-but-one competitor to go in a seven-horse jump-off against the clock. The previous five had hit one or other of the gates of the double obstacle, but Beerbaum, on Almox Classic Touch, negotiated both and completed a clear round in 53.25s. BOXING WARSAW, Sunday: Polish heavyweight Przemyslaw Saleta battered Ian Bulloch of Britain to defeat yesterday in Poland's first professional boxing match since World War II.

Bulloch, Britain's 12th-ranked cruiser-weight, was bleeding and bruised in the face when the referee stopped the fight in the fifth round. to glory was run into a headwind, and she just failed to catch the speedy Danielle Ferraro. What stands this young blonde runner out from the others is her range. She performs at national level in the 100m, 200m, 400m (in which she is untouchable), BOOm. and The performances by Thomp: son and Siemionow augur well for the future of Australian athletics During the interclub season.

Thompson will compete for Seiko Easts, and leading clubs have approached Siemionow. with the infrequent wave sets in the final, and chalked up four strong rides early to ensure a substantial winning margin 78.5 to 70.8. The Sydney goofyfooter now goes into a two-event leg in Brazil with a lead of more than 1,000 points on the Association of Surfing Professionals rankings. Latest world championship Top 10: D. Hardman (Australia) 11686.

B. Geriach (US) 10658. B. Lynch (Aust) 10080. R.

Bain (Aust) 9518. D. Macaulay (Aust) 9424. R. Collins (US) 9240.

S. Garcia (Hawaii) 8962. G. Elkerton (Aust) 8950. M.

Potter (UK) 8778. and T. Carroll (Aust) 8754. New Zealand's Rick Wells. GOLF sport," he said.

"I want to prove myself as an amateur before I turn pro." Appleby, who holds eight course records, has enjoyed a successful 12 months, including wins in the Rich River Amateur Classic, the Australian Junior Championship in Adelaide and the Victorian Amateur, which he won with four sub-par rounds. He holds a full scholarship at the Victorian Institute of Sport which helps him finance his trips around Australia and overseas. "It's great for young players like me who have trouble getting money together," Appleby said. Appleby's next target is the Victorian Open later this month and then the South Australian Open. the wall As it turned out, I had a tough draw.

Two of them won gold medals Stan Boardman swimming 37.79s to win the 75-79 group and break the national record. Don Fowles swimming 38.12s to win the the 70-74 group. And the women all broke 38 seconds, which left me lamenting in 39.44s. But I learned a lot when to breathe, when to go hard and never to judge Masters swimmers by their age, gender or looks. Because a wrinkle on the blocks too easily turns into a twinkle in the pool.

in the world all heady stuff when you take into account his age and the fact he is not overly tall, and does not train. Thompson may be a freak of nature, living and jumping for joy. Further down the track, even if less conspicuous, was a 14-year-old runner carving a niche for herself in equally extraordinary circumstances. Tammy Siemionow dominated her age' group in the 800m yesterday, clocking 2min 20s. then backed up and ran a brilliant 26.1s for second place in the 200m.

That sprints for the finish line ahead of Mike Pigg of the US and treble Edberg Damien Hardman an impressive effort. A dream start to national kick-off HOCKEY The new National Hockey League kicked off at the weekend with rule changes making the game more open. The Melbourne Redbacks and the Sydney Stingrays completed a dream start to the inaugural competition, easily brushing aside their opposition. The new rules give greater points to a field goal than a penalty corner goal, and each game has four 20-minute quarters instead of two 35-minute halves. Almost 1,000 people turned out at the Homebush State Sport Centre yesterday to see the home side complete the weekend double by downing Tarn worth Frogs 2-1 after winning 5-3 on Saturday.

The country boys were unlucky not to capitalise on several scoring chances in the first two quarters. Tamworth dominated the first half but Sydney came back strongly in the second. Both teams had six penalty corners awarded during the match, with Richard Willis's early rebound the only success. Tamworth coach Barry Prit-chard was pleased with his side's first-up performance despite the lack of reward. "Our build-up and cohesion was strong but the players were a little anxious when the goals wouldn't come and fell down in the area of pass selection," he said.

The Stingrays' coach, Denis Sundin, was delighted with his team's courage. "We have a fairly young inexperienced defence and yet we came from behind last night and today," he said. Quality passing and tight defence yesterday gave the Red- backs their second victory of the weekend against the Lakers. As on Saturday, the Lakers turned over the ball to the Redbacks too easily, and they failed to support their teammates in attack and defence. By contrast, the Redbacks always had a man in support.

David Wansbrough opened the scoring for the Redbacks when he picked up a miss-trap of Lakers' captain David Carter to jink the ball over Carter's stick, and volley into the net. The Lakers came back in the second quarter with a variation to a penalty corner that netted them two points instead of the usual one. They played the ball 5m out of the circle and therefore negated the penalty corner, so the ball came into play as a field goal opportunity. The Redbacks tried the same ruse a minute later and were successful through David Shaw. A number of silly errors by the Lakers' defence enabled Colin Batch to net the final score of the match in the third quarter to give the Redbacks a 6-2 lead.

On Saturday, the Lakers went down 6-12. Spies sets SAILING KATHRYN WICKS Michael Spies has set the pace in the NSW 18-Footer League's sprint series, recording his third consecutive win yesterday to lead the 10-race event-Spies had an enthralling tussle with reigning world champion Julian Bethwaite in yesterday's third heat, with 14 seconds separating the pair at the end of the long south-easterly course on Sydney Harbour. Bethwaite, who recorded the fastest time in the handicap event, was sailing a new skiff and was without his regular crew. Spies, who has the help of Angus Roxburgh (sheethand) and for'ard hand Steven Benson, is sailing the Bethwaite-designed skiff he bought last season. Graham Turner, who holds second place overall in the series ahead of Bethwaite, was second yesterday.

Geoff Williams was a clear leader in the race early on until he took the wrong course, an error which also cost him placjngs in heat two on Saturday. Williams led the fleet around the second mark, and it was not until the Taylor Bay buoy, where the error Open victory an omen for young champion Queensland's Miles Stewart winnin set, Edberg broke Rostagno's serve for a 4-2 lead and the Swede sealed victory by breaking his opponent's serve again in the eighth game. "I wanted one chance to break, but at 2-3 in the third set I hit a few bad volleys and I think that cost me the match," said Rostagno. In Zurich, top-seeded Steffi Graf battled persistent wrist inflammation and pain but still beat fifth seed Helena Sukova 6-4 6-3 to reach the final of the European Indoor tournament. Graf will face Frenchwoman Nathalie Tauziat in today's final after Tauziat overcame fourth-seeded Manuela Maleeva-Frag-niere, of Switzerland, 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-5).

Sukova, who defeated her third-seeded Czechoslovak compatriot Jana Novotna in the quarterfinals, crumbled under relentless pressure from 22-year-old Graf in their 64-minute match. Despite the pain and inflammation, Graf said it would not prevent her from playing the final. She said she would then take two weeks off. It was Tauziat's second upset in as many days after ousting No 2 seed Gabriela Sabatini in the quarter-finals. 9 In Brisbane, Ian Ayre, Australian tennis star of a past era, died on Saturday playing the game he loved.

Ayre, about 60, collapsed during a competition doubles match in Brisbane, and was dead on arrival at hospital. John Brown, president of the Queensland Lawn Tennis Association, said Ayre, Queensland's second Davis Cup player, was picked when tennis in Australia was very strong. "It was the golden era dominated by Frank Sedgman and Ken McGregor, and the emerging stars. Lew Hoad and Ken Rose-wall," Brown said. TOKYO, Sunday: World number one Stefan Edberg won his third consecutive event by posting a three-set victory in the final of the Tokyo Super indoor tennis tournament today.

Edberg, ho regained the world number one ranking when he won his first US Open championship last month, beat Derrick Ros-tagno. of the US, the seventh seed, 6-3 1-6 6-2 in 96 minutes. The victory gave the 25-year-old Swede his season's sixth title, including the US Open and last week's Australian indoor championship. Edberg said afterward he was very satisfied with his latest victory. "This has taken a little bit of pressure off me because I got a lot of points and have a very good chance of keeping the number one ranking for the year, which is one of my aims," he said.

Edberg, who lost only one set in his four matches on the way to the the pace Tough up against with another victory i. ill51 MELBOURNE: Victorian amateur Stuart Appleby, who has succeeded Ian Baker-Finch as the Queensland Open champion, is looking to take the similarities further. Appleby, 20, from the Yarra Y'arra club, fired a bogey-free 66 final round on Saturday to steal the championship from South Australian Mike Sprengel and the third-round leader, Brisbane professional Paul Harford. "It's a good omen," said Appleby, a member of Victoria's junior and senior golf teams. "I hope the win leads to more tournaments." He plans to turn professional eventually but wants to "put some runs on the board first" in the amateurs.

That includes representing Australia in the Eisenhower Cup. 'It's important to me if you can represent your country in any giving up about the ladder. I went too fast early." Don Fowles, who trains two kilometres a day, five days a week, uses swimming as an excuse to travel the world and meet people. "Since 1983, when I retired, I've been to Japan, Canada and Denmark in Masters Games," he said. "It's amazing how it's built up in that short time." Personally, when I climbed on the blocks and looked at my fellow competitors, I smiled inwardly elderly men and women scarcely constituted tough opposition for a fit 50-year-old.

ATHLETICS RIC CHAPMAN except watch some videos for five weeks now." This is quite extraordinary considering he cleared 2.28m and just missed at 2.31m. "And I had that too I just dropped my bum at the last moment," he said. The 2.31m would have been an open record and ranked him 13th From Page 50 in her own words, she took as many as she needed to swim 37.06s and win her 50-54 group. "I took in a lung-buster about the 25 metres, and thought, 'Well, that's half the race'," she said. "But I must be honest, I hit the wall at 40m.

I thought, 'Jeez, the end must be near'." Stan Boardman trains four kilometres a day, four days a week, and treats swimming like walking. "Once you get the knack of the breathing, it's easy," he said. But he too hit the wall. "I felt myself ft fx ft fl ft Untrained teenager jumps Starboard! America's Cup contender Spirit of Australia exercises its right of way against an 18-footer on Sydney Harbour yesterday. The NSW high-school games concluded yesterday but not before giving birth to two incredible talents.

The brightest of the babies was 18-year-old Lochsley Thompson, who leaped to fame by shattering the Australian under-20 high-jump record and qualifying for the Barcelona Olympics. And he did it all on no training. "I broke my leg a little vhile ago and had to sit out training, then my exams came around and they take up all my time," he said. "I haven't done any training Picture by PHILLIP LOCK the course led to only three skiffs finishing, with Adrienne Cahalan crossing the line lmin 40s ahead of Scott Ramsden, with Andrew Divola third. The results are provisional, subject to an inquiry by the race committee.

your goals, and the State and the world championships are our goals." With outspoken youngster David Witt yet to get his skiff on the water, Spies said Bethwaite was shaping as his main competition. In 18-Foot Skiff Association racing yesterday, confusion over occurred, that Spies was able to gain a lead of 35s over Bethwaite. Bethwaite narrowed that margin to 10s by the Double Bay mark and the last before the finishrbut could not break Spies's hold on the race. "Winning these early races is a bonus," Spies said. "It's now you set.