IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Swimming

Coughlin breaks own 100m backstroke record

NEW YORK: American Natalie Coughlin surprised herself by breaking her own 100m backstroke world record on Sunday, clocking 59.21 seconds in the preliminaries of the Missouri Grand Prix.

Coughlin, the reigning Olympic champion, took more than two 10ths of a second off the previous mark of 59.44 seconds set at the World Championships in Melbourne last year.

"If you could see my face, I was slightly shocked," Coughlin told reporters. "It was a strange race. I really didn't expect it."

Coughlin was more than four 10ths of a second behind world record pace at the halfway stage but used a strong second leg to set the second world record of the meet.

Zimbabwe's Kristy Coventry shattered the 200 backstroke record on Saturday. Coventry was second to Coughlin in the 100m backstroke preliminaries, clocking 59.61 seconds.

Soccer

Milan faces keeper crisis after Kalac hurts finger

MILAN: European champion AC Milan faces a possible goalkeeping crisis for Wednesday's Champions League last 16 first leg at Arsenal after Zeljko Kalac suffered a dislocated finger in training.

Dida, who has lost his first team place to the Australian, is also a doubt after injuring his back while sitting on the bench in Milan's 0-0 draw at Parma on Saturday.

Third-choice keeper Valerio Fiori last made an appearance for Milan in the 2003-04 season.

Milan is hopeful 18-year-old Brazilian striker Alexandre Pato will recover from an ankle problem for Wednesday after Ronaldo was ruled out for at least nine months with a serious knee injury.

Toni hat-trick gives Bayern 3-0 win over Hanover

BERLIN: Luca Toni scored a second-half hat-trick to give Bayern Munich a 3-0 win away to Hanover 96 on Sunday, restoring its three-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga.

Bayern was struggling to make headway in heavy conditions before Toni produced a perfect strike on the turn for the opening goal in the 58th minute.

The Italian World Cup winner doubled the lead when he beat the offside trap again six minutes later and slipped a shot past Robert Enke.

Toni completed the hat-trick, and took his goals tally for the season to 13, when he headed over Enke on the rebound eight minutes from time.

Victory gave Bayern 43 points from 20 games. Werder Bremen is second on 40 after winning 2-0 at home to Nuremberg on Saturday.

Motor racing

Newman wins dramatic Daytona 500

DAYTONA, Florida: Ryan Newman of Penske Racing won the 50th edition of the Daytona 500 race in a dramatic finale on Sunday.

Newman, driving a Dodge, overtook Tony Stewart on the final lap thanks to some help from teammate Kurt Busch who finished second with Stewart third in the opening race of the NASCAR season.

There was no place on the podium for the hotly fancied Hendrick Motorsports team. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was its best finisher in ninth position.

The race had been uneventful until a series of cautions in the finale and Stewart grabbed the lead from Jeff Burton with just three laps remaining.

Stewart's disappointment was compounded by the failure of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, younger brother of Kurt, to take a podium position despite leading for large stretches of the race.

(China Daily 02/19/2008 page24)