DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Spain’s Mireia Belmonte Garcia matched American star Ryan Lochte with her third gold medal at the short-course world championships Saturday.
She was timed in a championship-record 2 minutes, 5.73 seconds in the 200-meter individual medley, adding to her back-to-back titles in the 200 butterfly and 400 IM on Wednesday’s opening night.
Belmonte finished 0.21 seconds in front of Ye Shiwen of China and 0.36 ahead of Ariana Kukors of the U.S.
“I can’t quite yet believe I’m going home with four medals,” Belmonte Garcia said.
Lochte won all three of his opening events — two in world-record times — and led the 100 IM semifinals in 50.81 seconds, just 0.05 off Peter Mankoc‘s world record set last year. Today, Lochte will swim two individual events plus the 400 medley relay.
American Rebecca Soni defeated Australian rival Leisel Jones again in the 100 breaststroke.
Volleyball: Penn State wins
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Penn State won its fourth straight NCAA women’s volleyball title, sweeping upstart California (30-4) in three sets behind the power of Blair Brown and Deja McClendon and a gutsy performance in the key second set.
Brown had 18 kills and 10 digs, and McClendon added 16 kills for the Nittany Lions (32-5), who won 19 of their last 20 matches and extended their record number of consecutive national titles. Penn State won 25-20, 27-25, 25-20.
Bobsledder Napier is seventh
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Italy’s Si- mone Bertazzo and brakeman Sergio Riva won the World Cup two-man bobsled race in 1 minute, 51.40 seconds, edging Alexsandr Zubkov and Dmitry Trunenkov of Russia by 0.04 in the 16-sled field. Karl Angerer and brakeman Alex Mann of Germany took the bronze.
American Olympic bobsledder John Napier, who returned last month from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, finished seventh with brakeman Laszlo Vandracsek.
• Peter Penz and Georg Fischler raced to a first-place tie with Austrian teammates Andreas and Wolfgang Linger in a World Cup luge doubles event in Park City, Utah.
Footnotes.
Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2) missed a chance to become the oldest boxer to hold a major world title, fighting to a technical draw with Canadian Jean Pascal in Quebec City. The 45-year-old Hopkins rallied after being knocked down twice.
• The Boston Red Sox signed pitcher Dan Wheeler to a $3 million, one-year contract with a club option for 2012.
• Don Fehr is the new executive director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association.
• Walt Dropo, who won the 1950 American League rookie of the year award with the Boston Red Sox, died in Peabody, Mass. He was 87.
• Phil Cavarretta, the 1945 National League MVP who led the Chicago Cubs to their last World Series appearance, died in Lilburn, Ga. He was 94.
