10.71 Sprint Makes Jones the Second-Fastest Woman

Marion Jones became the second-fastest woman Tuesday when she ran the fifth-fastest 100 meters, winning a race in a blazing 10.71 seconds in Chengu, China.

Jones, of Thousand Oaks, focused on basketball rather than track in college at North Carolina and only now is approaching her track potential.

Former U.S. star Florence Griffith Joyner set the world record of 10.49 in 1988 in Indianapolis, and also has times of 10.61, 10.62 and 10.70.

Jones, 22, said she hoped to break Griffith Joyner’s record before the end of her career.

“Maybe this year is pushing it,” she said.

Jones’ time eclipsed her 10.79 run Saturday in Osaka, Japan, as the best this year, and was .05 of a second faster than her previous best of 10.76 set last August in Brussels.

Minutes after her run, Jones said her goal was to win five gold medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, in the 100 and 200 meters, long jump, and the 400 and 1,600 relays.

College Basketball

Boston College President Father William Leahy denied that two basketball recruits were rejected because they are black and said former basketball coach Jim O’Brien was “irresponsible and reckless” for injecting charges of racism in a lawsuit he has filed against the school.

“This place is not going to allow wild accusations to be made against it or one of its administrators without responding,” Leahy said.

Now the coach at Ohio State, O’Brien left Boston College last year after a series of spats with the admissions department involving the rejection of recruits Jonathan DiPina and Elton Tyler.

Fresno State has named Britt King women’s basketball coach, making her the school’s first black head coach.

Pro Football

Dallas Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman had a cancerous mole removed from his upper back last week, and doctors believe his prognosis is excellent.

The Oakland Raiders signed draftee Leon Bender, a defensive tackle from Washington State. . . . The Chicago Bears signed free-agent linebacker Ricardo McDonald, who started 12 games for Cincinnati last season.

Jurisprudence

Former NBA player Kenneth Wilburn, who later became a teacher and has admitted molesting two of his female students, could get 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to official misconduct.

Wilburn, who played for the Chicago Bulls and in the old American Basketball Assn. between 1967 and 1969, told a judge in Mays Landing, N.J., that he touched the breasts of 12- and 15-year-old students while he was a teacher at Chelsea Heights Elementary School in 1996.

Tony Harris, Tennessee’s freshman point guard and a key member of last year’s NCAA tournament team, has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend.

Shayla Denise Green filed a misdemeanor simple assault charge against Harris after an argument turned physical outside a dormitory.

Hockey

Sweden and Finland won opening games in the two-round semifinals at the World Ice Hockey Championships in Zurich, Switzerland.

Finland’s Ville Peltonon scored his fourth goal of the tournament to lead the Olympic bronze medalists to a 4-1 victory over Olympic champion Czech Republic.

Peter Forsberg scored twice in leading Sweden to a 4-1 victory over Switzerland.

Tennis

No. 1 Pete Sampras ended his Italian Open jinx, winning a match in Rome’s clay-court tournament for the first time in four years by eliminating Thomas Enqvist, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

Lindsay Davenport won her second-round match at the German Open in Berlin, beating Slovakia’s Henrieta Nagyova, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.

Miscellany

The World Boxing Assn. welterweight title fight between champion Ike Quartey and Russian Andrei Pestriaev, scheduled for Paris on Saturday, has been canceled.

Quartey’s promoter, Main Events, accused brothers Michele and Louis Acaries of AB Stars, staging the bout, of purposely forcing the cancellation, saying Quartey was offered a “ridiculous” contract that he would not sign.

Penn State’s Beaver Stadium could become the largest football stadium in the country under a plan to be considered by university trustees.

But by the time the $84-million project to bring Beaver Stadium’s capacity to 103,576 could be completed, Michigan Stadium, where expansion is planned, might have 107,701 seats. Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium is now the largest, with 102,544 seats.

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Randy Harvey is on assignment.