Sport in brief

Press, 4 April 1989, Page 48

Sport in brief

Deans unavailable The first choice Canterbury and All Black halfback last season, Bruce Deans, will not be available for his province in the upcoming South Pacific championship, but will be ready for the zone matches and New Zealand trials next month. Deans has been playing for the San Luis Obispo City team in California in the off-season and is not expected back from the United States until the end of the month. However, the Canterbury selector-coach, Frank Jack, said yesterday that Deans had written to inform him that he was available to represent South Zone in the inter-zonal series and for the New Zealand trial in Hamilton on May 31. Mr Jack’s immediate tasks are to select his first Canterbury team for the South Pacific pipeopener against Queensland in Brisbane on Sunday and make his Canterbury nominations for the All Black trial. Both of these matters will be dealt with on Thursday. Bell, Eade in team Michael Bell and Jason Eade, of Canterbury, have been included in the four-man New Zealand amateur boxing team for the King’s Cup tournament in Bangkok. They will be joined by Andrew Creery (Waikato), Johnny Wallace (Hutt Valley), and the trainer, John McKay. Eade was a silver medallist at the recent Indonesian international tournament, and the experience gained at the prestigious King’s Cup event will assist all four in their Commonwealth Games preparation. They leave for Bangkok on Friday and return on April 17. Last end comeback PA Nelson Hawke’s Bay’s Bruce Ballinger picked up five shots in the last three ends, including three on the last end, to ; beat Wellington’s Maurice Symes, 21-20, in an exciting final to the national men’s champion-of-champions singles bowls tournament in Nelson yesterday. Ballinger had scored a 21-2 win over Marlborough’s John Mears to cruise into the final while Symes beat North Shore’s Owen Smith, 21-14, to secure his final berth. Younger Khan wins NZPA-Reuter Monaco Jansher Khan used his superior fitness to upset the world champion and fellow-Pakistani, Jahangir Khan, in the final of the Monte Carlo Open squash tournament yesterday. Jansher triumphed in a tight two-hour battle that went the full five games and gained a valuable psychological boost for the British Open starting on April 12. The 7-15, 15,-11, 7-15, 15-12, 15-7, win gave Jansher his first grand prix victory of the year and was sweet revenge for his heavy defeat to Jahangir in Spain two weeks ago. Retirement a joke NZPA-Reuter Verona, Italy Italy’s Olympic marathon gold medallist, Gelindo Bordin, was playing an April Fool’s joke when he said he planned to give up competitive running, his girlfriend said yesterday. Bordin, aged 30, said in a live television interview on Saturday that he promised himself he would campaign in favour of sport if he won the marathon at last summer’s Seoul Olympics. “I can’t reconcile this activity with competitive sport and therefore I really think I will abandon races,” he said. But his girlfriend, Francesca, told the Italian news agency ‘ANSA’ that Bordin was merely joking. “He has no intention of giving up racing.” • Inside sport: Page 32, 42