Briefly

Phenom Liukin captures gold at U.S. Gymnastics nationals

Nastia Liukin lived up to the hype.

Touted for the last few years as gymnastics’ next big star, Liukin showed what all the fuss was about Saturday night, rallying to edge Chellsie Memmel for her first senior title at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. After nailing her vault, her final event, her father and coach Valeri swept her up in a big hug.

Liukin finished with 76.164 points, 0.367 points ahead of Memmel. Memmel, a double gold medalist at the 2003 world championships, scored 75.797 points.

Liukin, 15, won the last two U.S. junior titles, and would have been a sure bet for Athens last summer if she’d been old enough. Valeri Liukin was a double gold medalist with the Soviet machine in 1988, her mother was the 1987 rhythmic world champion, and Liukin combines the best of both of them. She has her mother’s grace and long lines, and her father’s power and steely determination.

All of that was on display Saturday. Liukin had ground to make up after the preliminaries, where a slip and a wobble on the beam left her a disappointing third. She got right to work with her first event, the uneven bars.

Liukin does one of the toughest bar routines in the world, yet makes it look effortless. She flitted from bar to bar as if weightless, and her handstands were so straight it was as if an invisible cable was pulling her taut from above. Her score of 9.766 moved her ahead of Jana Bieger and she passed Memmel for good after scoring a 9.8 on the beam.

Basketball

U.S. rebounds against Puerto Rico

Villanova’s Allan Ray scored 17 points to help the United States rout Puerto Rico 99-79 at the Under-21 World Championships in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, a day after Canada spoiled the Americans’ title defense.

The United States fell to Canada 93-90 in a quarterfinal overtime upset Friday that dashed any U.S. chances of repeating its 2001 championship. Now the U.S. will fight for fifth place today against Argentina, which beat Slovenia 70-43, in the FIBA basketball tournament.

Greece (6-1) reached the Under-21 final for the first time by beating Canada 74-61 Saturday night and will play Lithuania, which topped Australia 96-73. Gonzaga University player Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes scored eight points for Canada.

•Boston College’s Craig Smith scored 23 points to help the United States beat Slovakia 85-70 in the World University Games men’s basketball tournament in Izmir, Turkey. Team USA will play Germany today.

•The Milwaukee Bucks re-signed guard Michael Redd to a six-year, $90.1 million contract after agreeing to the deal last month. Redd, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard from Ohio State, averaged a career-high 23 points last season and averaged 17.7 points since Milwaukee drafted him in the second round in 2000.

Golf

Americans lead Walker Cup

John Holmes beat longtime Britain and Ireland player Gary Wolstenholme 1-up to help the United States take a 6 1/2 -5 1/2 lead after the first day of the Walker Cup matches at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill.

The U.S., trying to end a three-match losing streak in the biennial competition, led 2 1/2 -1 1/2 after the morning alternate-shot matches and maintained the one-point lead by splitting the eight afternoon singles matches.

The two-day competition will conclude today with four more morning alternate-shot matches and eight afternoon singles matches. The United States needs 12 1/2 points to win, and Britain and Ireland needs 12 to retain the cup.

•American teenager Paula Creamer shot a 7-under 65 to take a two-stroke lead after two rounds of the NEC Karuizawa golf tournament in Karuizawa, Japan.

Tennis

Agassi, Nadal advance to final

Andre Agassi beat Greg Rusedski 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal, setting up a championship showdown with French Open winner Rafael Nadal.

The top-seeded Nadal advanced to his first meeting with Agassi by beating Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 7-5.

•Top-seeded Anastasia Myskina of Russia rallied to defeat France’s Emilie Loit 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the semifinals of the Nordic Light Open in Stockholm, Sweden.

•Daniela Hantuchova mixed solid serves with drop shots to upset third-seeded Elena Dementieva 6-3, 6-4 in the JPMorgan Chase Open semifinals in Carson, Calif.

Hantuchova will play fifth-seeded Kim Clijsters, who rallied from deficits in both sets to beat No. 13 seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-2, 6-4.

Boxing

Rachman outpoints Barrett

WBC interim heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (41-5, 33 knockouts) unanimously outpointed friend Monte Barrett (31-4, 17 KOs) at the United Center in Chicago to keep his place at the front of the line to face Vitali Klitschko.

But the fighters did not endear themselves to the crowd of 15,101. It was a slow-paced bout, and the fans made it known they were not happy.

Rahman and Barrett are friends whose children play together, and they looked like they didn’t want to hurt each other – until Rahman landed a solid left early in the fourth. But the boos resumed.

Rahman opened a cut on a cornered Barrett’s left eyelid with a hard right in the fifth. And he landed another hard right to the head at the end of the eighth round. But there were more boos than big hits, more clenches than connecting punches.

•Ricardo Mayorga (27-5-1, 22 KOs) won the vacant WBC super welterweight championship, unanimously outpointing former IBF welterweight champion Michele Piccirillo (44-3, 28 KOs) at the United Center in Chicago on the Hasim Rahman-Monte Barrett undercard.

Miscellany

Powerscourt wins Arlington Million

Powerscourt finished first in the Arlington Million for the second year in a row. This time he really won the race. Disqualified for stretch interference after winning a year ago and placed fourth, the powerful 5-year-old bay horse pulled away in the stretch for an impressive victory Saturday. Kitten’s Joy, going off as the 4-5 favorite, finished second and Fourty Niners Son third.

•The New York Islanders signed Mike York and Trent Hunter to one-year deals, as the NHL club avoided arbitration with both.

•Kelci Bryant finished the best week of her career by winning the 3-meter springboard title at the U.S. National Diving Championships in Huntersville, N.C.

The 16-year-old Bryant, who won the 1-meter gold medal Thursday, had never won a senior national title.

Thomas Finchum, 15, earned three 9s and three 9.5s from the judges on his final dive to win the men’s platform gold medal by 1.20 points over David Boudia.

Jessica Livingston and Laura Wilkinson won the women’s platform synchro title.