YEAR IN REVIEW 1996: SPORTS-AND-GAMES: BOWLING

BOWLING: U.S. Tenpins. A long-shot contender for Bowler of the Year honours emerged in the summer of 1995 when 57-year-old John Handegard of Las Vegas, Nev., stunned the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) by winning its Northwest Classic in Kennewick, Wash. He became the oldest bowler ever to win on the PBA regular tour. A few months later he captured the PBA Senior Championship in Jackson, Mich. Handegard defeated Mark Williams of Beaumont, Texas, 278-247 in the Northwest final. In the title match of the Senior event, he scored a 246-185 victory over Avery LeBlanc of Houma, La. The more likely Bowler of the Year for 1995, however, was Mike Aulby of Indianapolis, Ind., winner of the Brunswick World Tournament of Champions 237-232 over Bob Spaulding of Greenville, S.C., and the ABC Bud Light Masters 200-187 over Williams. A record 91,059 individual entries in the American Bowling Congress Tournament helped the ABC celebrate its 100th anniversary. The winners in the five-month-long event were: team, Arden Lanes, of Seattle, Wash., 3,387; singles, Matt Surina, Mead, Wash., 826; doubles, Scott Kruppenbacher and Michael Wambold, Rochester, N.Y., 1,486; all-events, Jeff Kwiatkowski, Maumee, Ohio, 2,191. In the Women's International Bowling Congress Queens Tournament in Tucson, Ariz., Sandy Postma, a 48-year-old grandmother from Lansing, Mich., was the unexpected winner. Postma, who previously had never finished better than 11th in national competition, topped Carolyn Dorin of North Richland Hills, Texas, 226-187 in the final. Beth Owen, a Dallas, Texas, bowling instructor, won the singles event with 749 and the all-events title with 1,983 in the Classic Division of the WIBC Tournament. The Contour Power Grips of West Bloomfield, Mich., set a tournament record in the team competition with 3,125. The doubles winners were Carol Harsh and Debbie Villani of Las Vegas with 1,299. (JOHN J. ARCHIBALD) BOXING The world heavyweight championship in 1995 lost further credibility in another disappointing year, leaving it in a more confused state than ever before. George Foreman (U.S.), who late in 1994--after 10 years of retirement--had sensationally regained the title he had lost 20 years earlier, ceased to be recognized by most of the many organizations that claimed to control the sport. The 46-year-old Foreman made only one unsatisfactory defense of his title in 1995, against Axel Schulz of Germany in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 22. Foreman won the bout, but the decision was hotly disputed. The World Boxing Association (WBA), which had refused to sanction the fight, had stripped Foreman of his title for refusing to fight the WBA top-ranked challenger, former champion Tony Tucker (U.S.). When Foreman declined to meet Schulz in a return contest in Germany, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) declared the title vacant and left Foreman without a championship belt. The WBA recognized Bruce Seldon (U.S.) as champion after he defeated Tucker. On December 9 Schulz fought Frans Botha (South Africa) in Stuttgart, Germany, for the IBF version of the title. When Botha was declared the winner in a split decision, angry German fans threw coins and bottles into the ring. There was further devaluation of the World Boxing Council's (WBC's) heavyweight championship when Frank Bruno (England) outpointed Oliver McCall (U.S.) in London in September. In three previous attempts to win the title, the 33-year-old Bruno had been stopped by Tim Witherspoon (U.S.), Mike Tyson (U.S.), and Lennox Lewis (England). Tyson's comeback contest after three years in prison--against the almost unknown Peter McNeeley--lasted 89 seconds before McNeeley was knocked helpless. In a widely ridiculed move, McNeeley's manager climbed into the ring and stopped the fight. Tyson's share of the gross purse was reported at approximately $35 million. Buster Mathis, Jr. (U.S.), was chosen as Tyson's next opponent, in November, but after disappointing advance sales, the fight was postponed when Tyson reported a damaged thumb. Finally, at a poorly attended fight on December 16, Tyson knocked out the overmatched Mathis in the third round. Adding to the complications that left the heavyweight championship in confusion, Riddick Bowe (U.S.), a former champion who relinquished the WBC title, strengthened his claim to be the top-ranked heavyweight by battering to defeat in eight rounds another former champion, Evander Holyfield (U.S.), in Las Vegas in November. Julio Csar Chvez (Mexico) carried on another year as a remarkable champion, successfully defending his WBC super lightweight title against David Kamau (Kenya) in September. Chvez was reported to have been paid $1 million for the fight, though at 33 the Mexican, who had fought in 19 world title bouts, seemed to be losing his old sparkle. Nonetheless, his record of 95 wins, 1 loss, and 1 tie made him the most outstanding boxer seen in years. Two popular fighters relinquished newly won titles in 1995. WBC welterweight champion Pernell Whitaker (U.S.) defeated Julio Csar Vsquez of Argentina in March to win the WBA junior middleweight title and immediately abandoned it. In July Oscar De La Hoya, the only American to win gold at the 1992 Olympic Games, gave up the IBF lightweight belt, only two months after taking it from Rafael Ruelas (U.S.). The most promising new champion in 1995 was Roy Jones (U.S.), the IBF super middleweight champion, who remained undefeated in 30 fights. His closest rival was Nigel Benn (England), the WBC super middleweight champion. Benn's greatest triumph during the year was overshadowed by tragedy. In a bout to retain his WBC crown, he knocked out the highly rated Gerald McClellan (U.S.) in 10 rounds in London in late February. McClellan collapsed and was rushed to the hospital for brain surgery. Though he survived, his career was over and he remained disabled. Until he collapsed, McClellan had put up a spirited challenge in what was Benn's ninth title defense, and the British champion was all but knocked out in the first round. After severe brain damage ended the career of another super middleweight, Michael Watson (England), when he was stopped in 12 rounds by Chris Eubank (England) in 1991, the British Boxing Board had ruled that an anesthetist, paramedics, and physicians had to be at ringside and that an ambulance had to be available so that a brain-damaged boxer could be rushed to a hospital with a neurosurgeon on duty. But tragedies continued to occur. James Murray (Scotland) died following brain surgery after being knocked out by Drew Docherty (Scotland) in a clash for the British bantamweight crown at Glasgow, Scotland, in October. In May Jimmy Garcia (Colombia) died 13 days after being knocked out in a world super featherweight championship in Las Vegas by Gabriel Ruelas (U.S.). Dong Choon Lee (South Korea) died after boxing in Japan, and two young Filipinos suffered fatal injuries in bouts in the Philippines. The deaths and permanent injuries in Britain brought another call from the British Medical Association for boxing to be banned in the U.K. Pro-boxing people argued that if the sport was banned it would continue more dangerously underground, where bouts would be held without control or medical precautions. (FRANK BUTLER) BILLIARD GAMES Carom Billiards. The 1994 Billiard World Cup Association (BWA) three-cushion championship was won by Torbjorn Blomdahl of Sweden, despite his inability to finish first in any of the four international BWA Tour events used to determine the champion. But the accumulated point total from his strong and steady performances at all of the tour stops enabled Blomdahl to become the first man to win four career BWA world three-cushion titles (his previous championships were in 1988, 1991, and 1992). Blomdahl's first-place finish was aided by the fact that no one else could muster more than a single title in the series. At the first meet, the Efes Pilsen World Cup in Istanbul, legendary Belgian star Raymond Ceulemans defeated Blomdahl in the semifinal round, relegating the Swede to third place. In Oosterhout, Neth., Blomdahl lost in the final of the Wetsteijn Dutch Open World Cup to emergency fill-in entrant Christoph Pilss of Austria. At the German Open World Cup in Halle, the runner-up spot again went to Blomdahl, with The Netherlands' Dick Jaspers the champion. Blomdahl's improbable "victory without a victory" was realized at the last tour event, the World Cup Final in Ghent, Belgium, where he was again second, this time to Semih Sayginer of Turkey. Blomdahl's four-tournament PPI (points-per-inning average) was a fine 1.761, though overall runner-up Jaspers did post a slightly higher 1.770 PPI. Only Jaspers' 12th place at the Oosterhout event enabled Blomdahl to edge past him for the championship. Oosterhout was also the scene of new BWA records by Blomdahl: tied (with Jaspers) for best match PPI, 3.124, and best PPI for the tournament, 2.250 (breaking his own two-year-old record of 2.204). The world championship in five-pins billiards was held in October in St. Vincent, Italy, where the top-ranked player in the world, 22-year-old Gustave Zito of Argentina, went undefeated to win the $61,000 first prize. He also won $64,000 in the four-tournament qualifying series. As in 1994, Sang Chun Lee of New York City and Carlos Hallon of Miami, Fla., finished first and second, respectively, in the U.S. national three-cushion championship in New York City. It was the sixth time Lee had taken a U.S. national title. Pocket Billiards. Nine-ball competitions dominated professional pocket billiards. The Professional Billiards Tour (PBT) Players' Championship in King of Prussia, Pa., was won by Jim Rempe of Scranton, Pa. Efren Reyes of the Philippines won the 19th annual U.S. Open 9-ball championships in Chesapeake, Va. In Reno, Nev., the Sands Regency Hotel was host to its usual two semiannual PBT events; Sands XX was won by Johnny Archer of Raleigh, N.C., and Sands XXI by Reyes. The Philippine star also won both the sixth and seventh Bicycle Club invitationals in Bell Gardens, Calif., raising him to the top of the PBT player rankings for the first time. The PBT also held its first world 8-ball championship in Toledo, Ohio. Nick Varner of Owensboro, Ky., was the winner. Varner was also named 1994 Player of the Year by both Billiards Digest (third time) and Pool & Billiard Magazine (fourth award). At the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) world women's nine-ball championship in Arlington Heights, Ill., Ewa Mataya-Laurance returned to the top spot. The 10th Women's Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) U.S. 9-Ball Open in Chesapeake, Va., was won by Jeanette Lee, who also won four WPBA tournaments and the 16th WPBA national championship in Sioux City, Iowa. That onslaught was enough to secure for her the number one WPBA tour ranking. Loree Jon Jones won $60,000 in prize money on the rich 1995 Gordon's Women's 9-Ball Series, held in Nashville, Tenn., Chicago, and San Francisco. International mixed-team nine-ball was featured in the inaugural Miller Pilsner Mosconi Cup in Romford, England, where the Billiard Congress of America (BCA) team defeated the European Pocket Billiard Federation squad 16-12. The BCA inducted Cisero Murphy, the first African-American to win a world pocket billiard championship (1965), to its Hall of Fame in ceremonies at its 12th International Trade Expo in Las Vegas, Nev. The winners of the WPA world nine-ball championship, held in Taipei, Taiwan, in November, were Gerda Hofstatter of Austria and Oliver Ortmann of Germany. The junior champion was Kun-chang Huang of Taiwan. (BRUCE H. VENZKE) CHESS The continuing power struggle between the world ruling body of chess, the Fdration Internationale des checs (FIDE), and the Professional Chess Association (PCA), founded in 1993, seemed no nearer resolution at the end of 1995, a year in which Gary Kasparov of Russia successfully defended his PCA title in New York City but also in which the FIDE world title match between Anatoly Karpov of Russia and Gata Kamsky of the U.S. did not come to fruition. As a result, the PCA-FIDE agreement made in Moscow in December 1994 was not endorsed, and the General Assembly of FIDE at Paris in November 1995 replaced FIDE Pres. Florencio Campomanes. Campomanes had been a controversial figure since his election to the post in 1982. He had been successful in finding tournament sponsors over the years but was thought autocratic. During a meeting of FIDE in the autumn, widespread support for censuring recent FIDE policy forced Campomanes to resign. In a surprising move, his successor was 33-year-old Kirsan Ilyumdzhinov, a chess enthusiast who was president of the republic of Kalmykia in the south of the Russian Federation. The new appointee was endorsed by Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin, which overcame objections from Kasparov and the president of the Russian Chess Federation, the two figures instrumental in cobbling together the Moscow agreement of 1994. Ilyumdzhinov had been instrumental in having the last two Russian championships played at Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, and arranged for the 1998 World Chess Olympiad to be held at the same place. His election may have healed the split that threatened to cause Western countries such as the U.S. to leave the world ruling body and set up one of their own. Meanwhile, Kasparov was in uncertain form throughout the year, fueling rumours that he might soon leave international chess to pursue a career in Russian business and politics. In the springtime Max Euwe Memorial International tournament in Amsterdam, he was beaten twice, by Joel Lautier of France and Jeroen Piket of The Netherlands. Final standings in the tournament were: (1) Lautier, 4 points of a possible 6; (2) Kasparov, 3.5; (3) Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, 2.5; and (4) Piket, 2. Kasparov also failed badly in the Credit Suisse Masters tournament, held in Horgen, Switz., in October and November, placing fifth in an 11-player contest won by Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Vasily Ivanchuk of Ukraine. However, Kasparov was successful in the Mikhail Tal Memorial Tournament in Riga, Latvia, in April; the top three finishers were: (1) Kasparov, 7.5 points of a possible 10; (2) Viswanathan Anand of India, 7; and (3) Ivanchuk, 6.5. He also won at Novgorod, Russia (May 27-June 5), with 6.5 points of a possible 9 and in the PCA Grand Prix series of Quickplay knockouts. The Intel World Chess Championship, a PCA match between Kasparov and Anand, was originally scheduled to be played at Cologne, Germany, but was transferred on short notice to New York City at the invitation of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The 20-game match, with prize money of $1,350,000, was played from September 11 to October 10. It began with eight fairly tame ties, which did not support Kasparov's aspiration to bring the game to the television screens of the U.S. Anand won the ninth game but then fell badly behind, and the match came to an end after 18 games with a score of 4 wins, 1 loss, and 13 draws in Kasparov's favour. The innovative time limit of seven hours for each game, with no adjournments, was designed to be media-friendly. It was regrettable that the microphone commentary for the audience in the World Trade Center in New York was often audible to the players in their supposedly soundproof booth. Kramnik won the Dortmund (Germany) tournament (July 14-23), scoring 7 points of a possible 9. Karpov finished second with 6.5, and Peter Leko of Hungary and Ivanchuk tied for third with 5. Kramnik's victory added support to those who believed he would be Kasparov's main challenger in the next few years. In December Patrick Wolff won the U.S. championship in a speed chess tiebreaker over Nick DeFirmian and Alexander Ivanov. The three grandmasters had finished regular play with identical scores of 8 1/2-4 1/2. Mikhail Botvinnik, longtime Soviet "patriarch of chess," died in May. (See OBITUARIES.) Other noteworthy deaths included British player Harry Golombek, a prolific journalist and book author (see OBITUARIES), and Lev Polugayevsky, a former Soviet grandmaster. One of the year's curiosities was the ultrashort game played in the Western European zone of the 1995-97 world championship qualifying series. The series was won by Miguel Illescas despite this defeat at the hands of British champion Matthew Sadler, who failed to qualify for the next stage. (BERNARD CAFFERTY) CONTRACT BRIDGE The most successful contract bridge team of 1995 was from the U.S. In August, Nick Nickell, Dick Freeman, Bob Hamman, Bobby Wolff, Jeff Meckstroth, and Eric Rodwell won the Spingold Master Knockout Teams event for an unprecedented third consecutive time, and in October they won the Bermuda Bowl world team championship. Yet, to show how thin the dividing line between success and failure can be, during the qualifying rounds of the Bermuda Bowl a Brazilian declarer was in three no-trump doubled against Hamman and Wolff. He had taken eight tricks and was on lead holding the ace of spades. However, he thought he had won only seven tricks. So, instead of cashing his ninth trick, he tried for an endplay, lost the rest of the tricks, and finished one down. If the Brazilian player had taken his contract-fulfilling trick and all the other results had been the same in the rest of the qualifying matches, the U.S. team would not have advanced to the quarterfinals. The Marlboro world bridge championships were held in Beijing. Sixteen teams competed in both the Bermuda Bowl, open to all, and the Venice Cup, for women only. The final of the Venice Cup was a repeat of the previous one, held in 1993 between Germany and the U.S. In 1993 the U.S. was victorious. This time Germany turned the tables, winning by 312-248 international match points. The new world champions were Sabine Auken, Daniela von Arnim, Beate ("Pony") Nehmert, and Andrea Rauscheid. Karen Caesar and Marianne Mgel were also on the team, but they did not play in the final. The nonplaying captain was Klaus Reps. In the Bermuda Bowl final, the U.S. played against Canada. Early in the final session, the U.S. led by only 13 points, but they pulled away to win 338-295. For Nickell and Freeman it was their first world championship. Meckstroth and Rodwell gained their second Bermuda Bowl, and Hamman and Wolff their seventh. Edgar Kaplan was the nonplaying captain. On June 15 the International Olympic Committee recognized bridge as an Olympic sport. At first, it was to be a demonstration sport in the Olympic Games. Giorgio Belladonna died on May 12 at the age of 71. He was the only person to have played in all 16 world championship victories amassed by the Italian Blue Team. (See OBITUARIES.) (PHILLIP ALDER) CRICKET After nearly two decades of domination, the West Indies in 1994-95 finally had to cede its unofficial title of cricket's world champions to Australia, a 2-1 defeat on home soil being its first loss of a Test series since 1979-80 in New Zealand. The Australians, led by M.A. Taylor, fully deserved their historic victory. Outstanding batting by S.R. Waugh, who scored 429 runs at an average of 107.25 for the four Tests, and superb fielding and catching exposed a strangely lethargic West Indies side, which looked as though it had played one Test series too many. Not even the trenchant criticism of home supporters could lift the West Indies, which lost the deciding fourth Test by a humiliating innings and 53 runs in Jamaica after leveling the series on an underprepared pitch in Trinidad. For once, S.K. Warne, the Australian leg-spinner, did not contribute significantly to victory, largely because the pitches were made to suit the fast bowlers, but he still remained the most charismatic and influential bowler through the year. (See BIOGRAPHIES.) A hard-fought drawn series with England in the summer confirmed that the West Indians were in a period of transition. A new controversy hit the game, though, when two Australian players, Warne and T. May, accused the Pakistan captain, Salim Malik, of offering them a bribe to lose a match during the Australian tour of Pakistan in late 1994. The accusations were investigated by Pakistan authorities, and Malik's innocence was confirmed, but many in the game felt that the matter had not been properly handled and that the International Cricket Council should have carried out its own inquiries, particularly as neither Warne nor May was called to give evidence to officials in Pakistan. The lingering bitterness did nothing to ease the relationships between the two sides, which had been strained to near the breaking point during a fluctuating and ultimately decisive first Test of a three-match series in Pakistan, when only a last-wicket partnership of 57 between Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed brought the home side victory. Wasim Akram (8 for 139) and Waqar Younis (7 for 144) had set up victory, but Warne (8 for 150) had bowled Australia back into the match. In his first match as captain of Australia, Taylor had the unhappy distinction of making two noughts. The next two Tests were drawn, leaving Pakistan as the winner by 1-0. Malik was the leading run-scorer with 557, and Warne was the most successful bowler, with 18 wickets (at an average of 28.00). Australia's superiority over England was confirmed with a 3-1 victory in the Ashes series in Australia. After a promising summer this was a disappointing result for England, whose batsmen had no answer to the spin of Warne or the pace of C.J. McDermott, while in M.J. Slater, Australia had the most promising young batsman of the year. Slater scored 623 runs in five Tests against England at an average of 62.30 to confirm his promise. For England, D. Gough, a sturdy fast bowler from Yorkshire, enhanced his reputation by taking 6 for 49 in the third Test in Sydney before breaking down with an ankle injury, and G.P. Thorpe, a left-handed batsman from Surrey, showed style and determination in being top scorer for England with 444 runs. But England never recovered from the loss of the first two Tests, in which McDermott and Warne took 31 wickets between them, the latter taking a hat trick at Melbourne in the second Test. England's solitary victory came in the fourth Test when D.E. Malcolm and C.C. Lewis took four wickets each in the second innings as Australia was bowled out for 156. Perhaps the best series of the year was that between the West Indies and England, which ended in a 2-2 draw after a summer of changing fortune and unrelenting excitement. Twice the West Indies, led by R.B. Richardson, went ahead; twice England came back, until the two sides resembled exhausted heavyweight boxers. In D.G. Cork, England discovered an all-rounder with the spirit of I.T. Botham, while B.C. Lara ended a quiet period with three successive centuries, averaging 85 for his 765 runs in the six-Test series, his batting once again showing the certainty of judgment and execution that had brought him the individual Test and first-class batting records in the previous year. In full flow the little left-hander had no equal. Cork marked his Test debut by taking eight wickets as England recorded its first victory over the West Indies at Lord's in 38 years. At Manchester he also took a hat trick, the first by an Englishman in a Test match in 38 years, while in the final Test C.A. Walsh became only the third West Indian (after L. Gibbs and M. Marshall) to have taken 300 Test wickets. Zimbabwe played host to Sri Lanka in a three-Test series that ended with three draws. Later in the season, however, Zimbabwe recorded its first victory in its 11th Test, at home against an erratic Pakistan, though it lost the next two Tests and the series 2-1. Pakistan was well beaten in the inaugural Test against South Africa, while the decline of New Zealand continued with defeats by Sri Lanka (the country's first series win on foreign soil) and South Africa. Sri Lanka continued to show signs of becoming a competitive force by defeating Pakistan 2-1 in a three-Test series in Pakistan. Meanwhile, India split a three-Test series (its only Test series of the season) against West Indies, with one win apiece and one draw. Much of the rest of international cricket play was marked more by quantity than quality, with a proliferation of spurious one-day tournaments, perhaps in anticipation of the World Cup scheduled to be held in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in 1995-96. In domestic cricket in England, Warwickshire, under the captaincy of D. Reeve, won the championship, for the second successive year, and the NatWest Trophy, the one title the county had not won the previous year. Kent won the one-day Sunday league title and Lancashire the one-day Benson and Hedges Cup. In Australia, Queensland won its first Sheffield Shield title, the nation's premier domestic trophy, after a 68-year drought. Barbados won the Red Stripe Cup in the West Indies, while Auckland won the Shell Trophy in New Zealand, and Natal the Castle Cup in South Africa. In England a controversy triggered by an article in the Wisden Cricket Monthly spilled over into the general media and provoked widespread discussion of the issues of race and nationalism in sports. The article, an essay by Robert Henderson, allegedly questioned whether or not black cricketers could be fully committed to the England cause. Two black England players, P.A.J. DeFreitas and D.E. Malcolm threatened to file suit. (ANDREW LONGMORE) CURLING Canada dominated curling in 1995, winning two world titles, losing in the final of another, and finishing third in the men's junior championships. Kerry Burtnyk won the world men's title with a 4-2 victory over Scotland's Gordon Muirhead. Sweden's Elisabet Gustafson defeated Connie Laliberte of Canada 6-5 for the women's championship. The competitions were held simultaneously in Brandon, Man., close to Burtnyk's and Laliberte's hometown of Winnipeg. The world junior women's crown was won by Kelly MacKenzie of Winnipeg, who defeated Sweden 6-5 at Perth, Scotland. Tom Brewster of Scotland won the men's junior crown with a 6-3 win over Germany. The 1996 world championships were to be held in Hamilton, Ont., and the juniors at Red Deer, Alta. At the 1998 winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, curling would for the first time be an official sport. Since curling was first introduced as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, Alta., the World Curling Federation had grown from 19 countries to 31. (JAMES MORRIS) CYCLING Miguel Indurain of Spain again dominated the professional cycling season in 1995, winning the Tour de France, the premier international event, for a record fifth successive year and later taking his first world title. Indurain showed his mastery against the clock by winning the eighth stage of the tour, an individual time trial of 54 km (1 km = 0.62 mi) between Huy and Seraing, Belgium, to take the overall lead, which he held for the next 14 days until the finish in Paris. Also winning the 46.5-km time trial at Lac de Vassiviere, France, Indurain finished with a victory margin of 4 min 35 sec over runner-up Alex Zlle of Switzerland after 21 stages and a total distance of 3,635 km. Indurain joined Jacques Anquetil (1957, 1961-64), Eddy Merckx (1969-72, 1974), and Bernard Hinault (1978-79, 1981-82, 1985) as the only riders to have won the tour on five occasions. The race was marred by the death of Italian rider Fabio Casartelli following a crash on the 206-km stage between Saint-Girons and Cauterets, France, on July 18. Casartelli, the 1992 Olympic Games road-race champion, fell at high speed on the descent from the Col de Portet d'Aspet in the Pyrenees and died in Tarbes, France, from head injuries. As a mark of respect, the field rode the next day's stage together, without racing. Tony Rominger of Switzerland won the Tour of Italy for the first time. The Tour of Spain, moved from its traditional date in May to September, was won by Laurent Jalabert of France, who ended the season as the world's top-ranked rider on the basis of points earned in each race. The world road and track championships were held at high altitude in Colombia. Four world records fell in the track program on a new 333-m (1,092-ft) concrete track at the Luis Carlos Galan velodrome in Bogot. Curtis Harnett of Canada became the first rider to break 10 seconds for 200 m with his time of 9.865, a speed of 72.985 km/h, in the qualifying round of the men's sprint. Harnett lost in the final to Darryn Hill of Australia. Other world records were set by Shane Kelly (1-km time trial, 1 min 0.613 sec), Felicia Ballanger (women's 500-m time trial, 34.017 sec), and Rebecca Twigg (women's 3,000-m pursuit, 3 min 36.081 sec). Twigg won the title 14 days after breaking her collarbone in a crash and rode with seven steel pins in her shoulder. The professional road race at Duitama, Colombia, was won by Abraham Olano of Spain, his country's first champion since the series began in 1927. Indurain finished second after having taken the individual time trial title four days earlier. French rider Jeannie Longo won both the women's time trial and road race, her 9th and 10th world titles. (JOHN R. WILKINSON) EQUESTRIAN SPORTS Cigar, a five-year-old that had competed in relative obscurity as a colt, was revealed to be one of the finest thoroughbreds of all time in 1995 when he won all 10 of his starts to become racing's first undefeated male horse in an entire year of major competition since Spectacular Bid went 9-for-9 in 1980 and became the first thoroughbred to do so since the filly Personal Ensign won 13 in 1988. Eight of Cigar's victories came in Grade I events, including four at the classic distance of 1 1/4 mi (1 mi = 0.62 km). His 1995 earnings of $4,819,800 established a North American single-season earnings record, surpassing the previous standard of $4,578,454 earned by Sunday Silence in 1989. The powerful bay son of Palace Music captured the $3 million Breeders' Cup Classic in his final start of the year. In that race he sped to a stakes record of 1 min 59 sec over a muddy track to become the first horse since Secretariat to run 1 1/4 mi in less than two minutes. Secretariat won the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1 min 59 sec. The Breeders' Cup Classic, Cigar's 12th consecutive victory during a streak that began in the autumn of 1994, clinched Eclipse Awards for the horse as 1995 Horse of the Year and as Champion Older Male. Unraced as a two-year-old and winner of only one of 11 starts on grass during the next two years, Cigar was switched to running on dirt only as a last resort. At the end of 1995 he was the 13th richest thoroughbred of all time, with career earnings of $5,089,813. Holy Bull, which had won the hearts and captured the imaginations of racing fans during his 1994 Horse of the Year campaign, dealt the sport a stunning blow on February 11 in the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park when he broke down during the running of the race and was subsequently retired. Ironically, the winner of the Donn was Cigar, which was making only his second start of the year. Cigar's regular jockey, Jerry Bailey, may have clinched the Eclipse Award as the outstanding jockey of 1995. Bailey's victory with Cigar in the Breeders' Cup Classic was his third in a row in the prestigious event and his fourth in five years. Bailey was inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1995. His earnings for the year totaled more than $15.2 million, tops among all riders in the U.S. Earlier in the year trainer D. Wayne Lukas (see BIOGRAPHIES) made racing history when he sent Thunder Gulch postward to victory in the 127th Belmont Stakes. The win was Lukas' fifth straight in the Triple Crown classics. The veteran trainer won the 1995 Kentucky Derby with Thunder Gulch and the 1995 Preakness Stakes with Timber Country. His string of five began in 1994 with Tabasco Cat's triumphs in the Preakness and Belmont. Thunder Gulch injured himself during the running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes on October 7 at Belmont Park and was retired to stud with a career record of 9 wins in 16 starts and earnings of $2,915,086. His 1995 earnings of $2,644,080 made him the leading money-winning three-year-old colt in 1995 and a favourite to win an Eclipse Award. The outstanding three-year-old filly of 1995 was Serena's Song. Trained by Lukas, she was the first filly since Winning Colors in 1988 to compete against the colts in the Kentucky Derby. Unlike Winning Colors, which won the Derby, Serena's Song finished 16th in the field of 19. She then went on to a sensational season, however, winning 9 of 13 starts and earning more than $1.5 million with victories in such prestigious races for fillies as the Mother Goose and Beldame. She defeated colts in the Haskell Invitational and the Jim Beam and placed fifth against older fillies and mares in the Breeders' Cup Distaff. Inside Information, trained by Shug McGaughey, won the Breeders' Cup Distaff by 13 1/2 lengths, the largest victory margin in the 12-year history of the Breeders' Cup races. She was timed in 1 min 46 sec over the muddy track, a Breeders' Cup stakes record for 1 1/8 mi. She was retired after making the Breeders' Cup her 14th win in 17 career starts. With career earnings of $1,641,806, she won the Eclipse Award as the best older female of 1995. Earlier in the Breeders' Cup program, trainer McGaughey notched his first Cup victory with My Flag in the Juvenile Fillies. She charged from off the pace to a stakes record of 1 min 42.4 sec over 1 1/16 mi. Among the fillies she vanquished was third-place finisher Golden Attraction, the leader of the two-year-old-filly division going into the race. Ridgewood Pearl, a three-year-old bred in Great Britain, captured the Breeders' Cup Mile over soft turf in 1 min 43.6 sec. The filly, a prominent stakes winner in Europe with victories in the Irish One Thousand Guineas, Royal Ascot's Coronation Stakes, and the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, was trained by John Oxx. (JOHN G. BROKOPP)