The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 42

40 THE APE TUESDAY 20 JUNE 1995 Sport Age In Brief Match winner goes to ground goff ladloor event By HEArtin SMITH, Sydney The Australian tennis circuit has," received a severe blow Mtti the cancellation of the 22-year-old Australian Irfdoor tournament. insumcient television support and' the Increasing difficulties of attracting a top player field had "made the event economically, unviable, the event's tournament director and co-' founder, Graham Lovett, said yesterdayj The('news followed last Wednesday's revelation that the Sydney '2000 Olympic tennis events might be moved to Mel-bourne because the budget for the tennis' venue at Homebush Stadium'had been downgraded by the Olympic Co-ordination Agency, Lovferfs decision to cancel the Indoor championship has stunned controlling body of men 's professional tennis, the ATP Tour. A tour spokesman said the organisation would be urgently seeking ways to rescue the tournament and that its pri- -ority was to keep the tournament in Sydney. But 'Lovett believes it is unlikely the event can be saved and that it will be sold off to Europe or Asia. -4 1 Lomu ignores an attempted tackle he made them, moulded them, melting the opposition on the way.

As the All Black contingent filed into the post-match media conference, everyone was trying to work out why Lomu was not there. It did not take long to find out why. This ultra-shy Individual was suffering a rare case of stage fright The first question was obvious where JonahT All Blacks official Brian Lochore grabbed the microphone and bellowed: "He doesnt really want to be faced by the press. Hefc here to play rugby, and he said, 1 Just dont want the furore Its his Since arriving in South the All Blacks have purposely shielded Lomu from the public, hoping also that they can ward off the many rugby league agents, and even, so the strong rumor goes, American football clubs, from contacting 'their most exciting player, and ft A A Tennis According to Lovett, the loss of the Australian Indoor, which has an honor roll of winners including Rod Laver, John New-combe, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, is disastrous for sport in Sydney. He believes Australia is slipping in the market for international sports events because of its Inability to compete with the financial giants of Europe and North America.

Australia's remaining major tennis tournaments are the Australian Open and the NSW Open. The men's ATP Tour event formerly held in Brisbane was sold off last year, while the future of the struggling Australian hard-court championship in Adelaide is to be decided later this month. "We've got the biggest prize the Olympic Games but it's going to be a continuing problem for Australian sport rounds of the French Open to reach the fourth round last was another absentee from qualifying. Scott Draper, who also reached the round of 16 at Roland Garros from the qualifying rounds, received a first-round bye in qualifying for Wimbledon and will play tomorrow. Tasmanian Richard From-berg, the world No.

38, has been forced to pull out of Wimbledon because of a broken bone in his wrist. PERFECTION is admirable, but boring. Pete Sampras and Guy Forget strove for it in the Queen's tournament final yesterday and, in so doing, achieved a result as technically precise as aircraft landings and take-offs at Heathrow. Each point was a masterpiece' of perfectly applied skill, especially serving. Sampras served 21 aces while Forget hit 15.

But two opposing forces prac from England captain Will Carting to score one of his four tries. Rising star misses Wimbledon Vic sports awards ATHLETICS! Cathy Freeman and Steve Moneghettl were the big winners at last night's VicSport awards. Freeman won the 200 and 400 metres at last year's Commonwealth Games. Moneghettl won the Tokyo and Commonwealth Games marathons. Team awards went to the North Melbourne Giants, who won the National Basketball League championship, and the women's state golf team.

Tournament lift GOLF: Prizemoney for next year's Heineken Classic in Perth has been raised to $900,000. Heineken had announced that it was doubling prizemoney to $800,000 next year. But tournament director Tony Roosenburg said the brewer had since decided to increase prizemoney a further $100,000, surpassing the Australian Open's $850,000. This followed news that the Heineken Classic would become part of the European Tour, as well as the Australasian PGA Tour. NBL row settled BASKETBALL: Brisbane chief executive Geoffrey i Schuhkraft said the Bullets would not be stripped of any competition points after conceding defeat in their sponsorship fight with the NBL Brisbane has agreed to end its $1000-a-day sponsorship deal with Ansett Australia.

Wndles bats hK form CRICKET: Four Wesl Indians have made their 1 highest scores of the tour of England, with three completing centuries against Durham's threadbare attack as the tourists amassed 5462 off 95 overs. De Castella named APPOINTMENTS: Former marathon great Rob de Castella has been appointed to the Australian Sports Commission. International rowing official John Boultbee has succeeded de Castella as director of the Australian Institute of Sport McLaren surprise MOTOR SPORT: McLaren has had an unexpected first-up win with its Fl GTR cars at the Le Mans 24 hours race. Thunder wins BOXING: Pacific Islands heavyweight Jimmy Thunder has knocked out Michael "The Bounty" Hunter in the first round of their bout in Las Vegas. Australian falters ATHLETICS: Australian ultra-distance runner Pat Farmer dropped one place to fifth after the second day of the two-month Trans America Footrace.

Leader consolidates CYCLING: Alex Zuelle has won his second time-trial in a week to strengthen his lead in the Tour of Switzerland Giro d'ltalia champion Tony Rominger pulled out. offering him millions. There were enough meaty comments from England coach Jack Rowell, captain Will Car-ling and All Black coach Laurie Mains, to Indicate that Lomu Is definitely a different character, both on and off the field. The most revealing comments came from Mains, when he was asked if It was true that 12 months ago, Lomu was a long way off from being selected for the World Cup. "I think it Is fair to say that we weren't sure whether we had done the right thing pro-.

noting him to the top level as -early as we did," Mains said. "But once we found out little more about the man and that he needed to be involved In a team culture, we realised that we really could do something with the athlete, "We. Just didn't know him well enough last year to get the best out of him. We always knew his ability as a rugby-player, we Just needed to know TWO first-half goals from Hegge Riise and Marianne Pettersen ensured Norway held off the challenge of European champ-. ion Germany to win the final of the women's World Cup yester- day.

Norway, was runner-up to the United States in the inaugu ral tournament in Independent THE UNITED STATES routed Mexico 4-0 in Washington yes- terday, the- heaviest defeat the i US has inflicted on its southern neighbor in 61 years. Roy Wegerle, Thomas Dooley, i. John Harkes and Claudio Reyna Picture: AP IS 11 how to get Inside his head." Now that the All Blacks, are Inside Lomus head, they are desperate not to let anyone else know what makes that mind tick over. It is their secret, and an important enough secret, because It will almost certainly win New Zealand Its second World Cup. And It is obvious how highly' they rate him.

"I'm sure that our prime minister, will put the crown Jewels up to keep Jonah Lomu In rugby union," said Mains. As Will Carting said: "That man Is Incredible. He Is very well balanced, has incredible power, he Is fast, and when hes coming on to the ball, as he did today, I don't think anyone would stop him. It wasnt very amusing for us. "He is awesome a freak, and the sooner he goes away, the better." NW ZEALAND 45 (J Lomu 4 Bachop KronWd tm: Brook fiakl goal.

A Matirtw 3 goala. pn ly goal, fMd goal) d. ENOLANO 29 (W Caring 2 fl 0rx)fwood 2 trm; Andrew 3 9011. panMy 901) scored the goals that gave the US only its seventh victory over Mexico In 43 matches: ERIK BO ANDERSEN scored a hat-trick as Aalborg beat Aarhus 4-0 on the final day of the sea-: son yesterday to become Dan- ish champion for the first time in Its 110-year history. BARCELONA maintained its record as the only club in Spain never to have missed a season of European competition when it clinched a place in next season's UEFA Cup with a 2-0 win at Athletic Bilbao.

aganclea PETER McFARLINE bad luck. Larry MIze and Bob Tway played shots that might have terminated the careers of lesser Norman, forever the optimist, claimed they were hurdles to be overcome. Partially, they were. He won a second British Open after them. Vet somehow along the way he has lost more times than even he would admit he should.

The major reason that 'Norman has become a major disappointment rather than a major triumph is himself. He has set parameters for hit career that were unreasonable for any golfing mortal and misleading to an adoring public that began to believe his pre-' diction. In 1986, after leading all four of the major going Into the last round and winning only the British Open he declared that It was within the reach of one golfer to win the four In one That, statement was' more, much more, than positive thinking. It was foolish. It lifted the expectations of a sports-mad nation whose expectations were already 0 Bergkamp set to join Arsenal for $16m Johnson lands holding down the big events, because of the earning capacity of professional athletes these days," Lovett said.

The death-knell for the Australian Indoor sounded three years ago when the ATP Tour relegated it from its elite position as a single-week championship series tournament, to a middle-rung event. The nine single-week championship series tournaments, known as the Super Nine, are guaranteed seven of the world's top 10 players, while events of the Indoor's ranking are nated but not guaranteed, three top-10 players. Since 1992, Lovett has been forced to offer huge amounts of appearance money to lure the leading players to Sydney. But television coverage of the event has decreased, which has affected the tournament's ability to attract sponsorship. The ATP Tour's player designations for this year's event, planned for 2-8 October, were Australian Pat Rafter, the Netherlands' Richard Krajlcek and American Richey Reneberg.

The first Australian Indoor championship was played in 1973, with Laver defeating New-combe in the final at the Hor-dern Pavilion, the event's home for 10 years. tising the same art almost as well as it can be applied is not the same as a contest, which was won by Sampras in straight sets, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (8-6). IN PORTUGAL, top seed Alberto Berasategui of Spain rallied to beat compatriot Carlos Costa 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and win the $452,000 Maia Open. ZINA GARRISON-JACKSON ended fellow American Lori McNeil's hat-trick bid in the Birmingham Classic final, winning in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. BORIS BECKER was fined $27,000 today by the ATP over comments he made about Austrian Thomas Muster at the Monte Carlo Open tournament in April.

Muster beat Becker in a five-set final a day after collapsing on court Becker accused his opponent of making a miracle comeback in remarks that seemed to imply the Austrian had used drugs. Carl Lewis takes a giant leap In Tampere, Finland on Sunday. Kyle Vander-Kuyp finished second in the 110 metres hurdles in 13.83 seconds, and David Evans and Julian Paynter were just behind the placegetters in a tight finish to the men's 3000 metres. Both ran under eight minutes. track would take at least 12 months to consolidate properly.

Vr Chief steward Pat Lalor, who inspected the track yesterday, agreed that the track would take some time to settle in and has recommended to the club that at least two fiill-scale race trials be run there next month. MVRC chief executive Paul Bretell said it had been planned to hold at least one trial on the new track in mid-July, with the Manikato Stakes meeting to be run on 19 August. "I think its important for everyone to understand that this is a totally new surface and it will only get better with rime and racing, Bretell said. The sand-mesh surface is similar to the one laid at the '4w i New Zealand superstar Jonah By GREG GROWDEN, Capa Town, Monday Rugby union's World Cup turned Into the Jonah Lomu Variety Show last night But the star was nowhere to be seen. After the New Zealand winger played the most -extraordinary game In recent memory, by scoring four tries -against England to put the All Blacks into the World Cup final, everyone wanted to talk to rugbys latest sensation.

But coaxed by an over-protective All Black management, Lomu has gone to ground until next Saturday, when he will appear at Ellis Park to help the All Blacks snatch the title against South Africa. With yesterday's performance Lomu single-handedly has added enormous vitality to this tournament Scoring four tries Is momen- tous enough, but what makes them even more special was how well they were executed, He did not Just score them, double Picture: AP I i 3 into his fifth world titles team. WORLD records were set in two new women's events bn the weekend. Danlela Bartova of the Czech Republic cleared 4.12 metres in the pole vault in Duisburg, and Olga Kuzenkova threw the hammer 68.16 metres at the Russian championships in Moscow. MCG about two years' ago, which had problems initially, but is now getting rave reviews for its durability and wet-weather capabilities.

The new track looks a picture with its lush cover of grass and banked turns, and racegoers will be pleasantly surprised with the rest of the "new-look" Moonee Valley. The old tunnel under the track from the car park has been extended to take racegoers right into the grandstand area, which is being converted into a food hall. SOUTH AFRICAN jockey Basil Marcus, who has been one of the premier riders In Hong Kong in recent seasons, arrives In Melbourne today on a working holiday. By GERARD WRIGHT and AAP, London, Monday One of Australia's rising tennis Mark Philipoussis, has failed; to enter the qualifying rounds for Wimbledon after missing out on a wildcard into the main draw. The; 18-year-old from Melbourne did not sign on by last night's deadline.

Tournament officials were surprised he had chosen not to enter the draw. A finalist in last year's junior Wimbledon championship, Phi-lippoussis had been widely expected to have a significant impact; in his debut in open company at the All-England Club after reaching a hard-court final in Scottsdale, Arizona, in early March, and the semi-finals of a claycourt tournament in Italy last month. Andrew Hie, the Romanian-born Australian teenager who stormed through the qualifying Clubs angry ovfer TV deal 'secrecy' From PAGE 42 had shown extensive interest in the incentives. Club president Allan McAlis-ter said: "There were four clubs trying to get it as high as they could and I suppose that's not all that surprising. "I think there is a possibility of something happening by October'- Hawthorn president Geoff Lord saidJus club supported the increase, in incentives "on the basis that if you want a merger to harfpeti, the incentives have to be adequate enough to create what -you want to The'nreeting also resolved that the reserves competition would continue for at least another years.

Gordon asked Oakley during the meeting what would happen if. two merger proposals landejdiiir the AFL's lap simultaneously, Oaiiey; repeated his earlier statethehi that the first merger signetC'iealed and delivered wouldp-eCeive the most favor-able package. The said it proposed to pay fotthe additional $2 million in incentives through money generated by Port Adelaide's licence fee and general revenue. Additional reporting by Anthony 'Mtthen, Lan Johnson, Grog Bauffl and Charlee HappeM. Houlahan By TONY BOURKE Veteran trainer Jim Houlahan was better shape than some of his horses yesterday, having just spent three days in hospital with a heart-related problem.

In typical fashion, Houlahan, 82, played down his illness, which was a well-kept secret on Saturday his star jumper The Shu won the Australian Hurdle, at Sandown. He. returned home yesterday afternoon and gave special thanks to his heart specialist and r)is family for enabling him to make such a rapid recovery. Unfortunately, he was unable to provide such an encouraging report about his two promising hurdlers Alpha Anne and Cold Peso(ir 'who are entered for Saturdays Moonee Valley Hur Once again Norman proves t. By LEN JOHNSON Michael Johnson completed a rare double in the 200 and 400 metres and Carl Lewis refuted rumors of his demise as an international-class athlete on the final day of the United States track and field championships in Sacramento on Sunday.

Johnson won the 200 metres in a wind-assisted 19.83 seconds, having won the 400 last Friday in 43.66. He will attempt to become the first man to win both events at the same world championships in Gothenburg later this year. Olympic 200 metres champion Michael Marsh failed to make the American team for the world titles. Running in the tight inside lane, he finished sixth. The two men who will accompany Johnson are Kevin Little, second in 20.16, and Jeff Williams, third in 20.20.

Lewis finished second in the long jump, claiming a place in an individual event for the fifth consecutive world championships. MELINDA GAINSFORD won the 100 metres at a meeting in Duisburg, Germany, on Sunday. A headwind of more than two metres per second held the Australian champion to a time of 1130 seconds. Long jumper Nicole Boegman also maintained her solid form, leaping 6.63 metres to take second place to world champion Heike Drechsler. Three Australians competed to oe major aisappointment By TREVOR HAYLETT, London, Monday Arsenal will unveil the $16 million signing of Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp this week to give new manager Bruce Rloch one of the biggest names in European soccer with which to begin his attempt to revive the English Premier League club's fortunes.

-Bergkamp agent spent the weekend in talks with Arsenal and the player declared on a television sports programme in the Netherlands that he was "99 per cent certain" to join Arsenal from Inter-nazionale of Italy. Future may be bleak for Shark From PAGE 42 Again at No. 16, needing a Norman had a wedge shot to an unprotected pin. Unprotected except for the steeply sloped "false front" of the green. Everybody alms beyond the flag and putts for birdie from behind the hole.

Not Norman; Try to blank the stick. See the ball suck back off the green. Watch your last good birdie chance evaporate. Few athletes are more personally appealing than Norman. That story about his sportsmanship, showmanship and candor has been written here several times.

But Norman is also one of the most exasperating performers in sport. He'll work out at sunrise, even on the days he plays. He'll spend countless hours working on every conceivable short-game shot. He cares. He works.

But he refuses to think his way around the course. i Norman has led five majors after three rounds and won only once. It won't faze him. As he said yesterday. "I forget about it.

I let things go, That's one of the good parts of me. I won't lose a night's sleep over It." That's good news, because Norman's a good guy. You'd hate to think of him pulling out that hair or pining away over lost golf tournaments in old age. On the other hand we know what his future holds. Those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it As Norman proved again.

Tha MkMhlnglon Poat returns home after heart scare Greg Norman was magnani mous In defeat He always Is. After sinking a "character tester of a putt on the 18th green to secure second place In the 100th United States Open golf championship he went quickly to congratulate Corey "Welcome to the club," he said to Pavin, who has been threatening to win a major as long as Norman has been threatening to take over Jack Nlcklaus' role as the most sue-cessful player In history. But which club did he mean? Was it the winners of a Big Onet Or the near misses? Because never In the annals of major tournament golf has one player been In contention so often yet come away with so little as Norman. He has made more money-than any other Australian ath- -lete, done more to popularise his chosen sport than any Other Australian, yet, with the possible exception of Ron Clarke, Inflicted more disap- polntment on the Australian sporting public than any of our International sports people. He has won two British Opens but no majors in the United States.

And like It or not, these days In golf, unless you are successful In a major In the US you are not really a success at all. That may seem too harsh a Judgment but even In that most gentlemanly of pursuits It la nothing but the Certainly 1 Norman has suffered mightily the hands of extraordinarily high. And It laced on his shoulders and Is mind pressures that no athlete should have to bear. Since then the paph of Normans golfing life has had more turns than the share trading Index. In the heady days of a decade ago, his style was like that of Vb Rogue: get out In front and defy the other to catch up.

Then his game, especially in the majors, became characterised by slow starts and storming finishes. He has come so dose so often to a batch of the big one that he must now have earned the dreaded reputation of choker. At Shlnnecock Hills, coming off a six-week break and a recent PGA tour win that he said had made ail the difference, he led the US Open field by two shots at the halfway mark. After a third day In which he played bravely In the most trying conditions, he still had a share of the lead. I But In the last seven holes of the 72-hole tournament hi game fell apart.

When hi approach to the 18th green stayed In the long grass, even his most loyal supporters knew he had blown his chance. So, too, did Norman. The man who has tried to stare down adversity throughout his golfing life could no longer hide his frustration. Dumping hi tee shot Into the bunker at the 17th waa the final, formal act of By then NoftBest face and taken on a haunted look. It will take a miracle to rsiovs dle at Caulfield.

"They are both in some doubt at this stage, but it is only Monday so they could come good," he said. Houlahan said Cold Reason had a slight throat infection and Alpha Anne had a "bit of a leg" problem. Including the Houlahan pair, the Moonee valley Racing Club yesterday received only 12 nominations for the Moonee Valley Hurdle and has extended nominations until 10 am today. PUNTERS should not expect a perfect racing surface Immediately when the long-awaited new Moonee Valley track opens In August That was the message yesterday from Moonee Valley officials, who said the multl-rall-lion-dollar, -sand-mesh-based.