Paddlers win Liberty race

Team Hawaii successfully defended its men's title, winning the Liberty World Challenge outrigger canoe race yesterday at New York Harbor.

Team Hawaii finished the 15.5-mile race in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 38 seconds. Northeast Outrigger was second in 2:03:21 with Binghampton third in 2:04:58.

The Team Hawaii women's crew finished second to Offshore (Calif.) by 16 seconds. Offshore won the race in 2:25:09 with Team Hawaii timed in 2:25:27. Outrigger Canoe Club was third in 2:26:28.

Over 70 teams competed in the event.

Garcia, Robb lose opening surf heats

World champion Sunny Garcia and defending event champion Kalani Robb lost while Andy Irons was the only Hawaii surfer to win his heat in yesterday's opening round of the Rio Surf International in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Garcia and Robb will compete in today's elimination round.

Yesterday, Garcia lost to wild card entrant Leonardo Neves of Brazil. Robb, ranked No. 9 in the world, lost to Pat O'Connell of the U.S.

Irons easily won his heat, scoring 25.0 to 14.95 by Australia's Beau Emerton.

Hursty first to finish Mountainman race

Peter Hursty won yesterday's Jamba Juice Mountainman Triathlon at Waimea Falls Park, over two minutes ahead of the nearest competitor.

Hursty was timed in 1 hour, 24 minutes and 6 seconds over the course that included a 500-meter swim, 20-kilometer mountain bike and 5-kilometer trail run. Chris Tang was second in 1:26:51.

The women's division title went to Lindsay Price in 1:50:53.

Water polo player Kern honored by Pac-10

Honolulu's Sean Kern, the MVP of the NCAA men's water polo tournament the past two years, was awarded the Pacific-10 Conference Medal as UCLA's outstanding senior male athlete.

Kern, a four-time all-American, led the Bruins to national titles in 1999 and 2000. The Punahou School graduate was also a member of the U.S. Olympic team that competed last summer in Sydney.

Top junior golfers tee off beginning Tuesday

The World Junior Masters Golf Championship, featuring golfers from 13 states and five countries, opens play Tuesday at the Mililani Golf Course.

Over 100 boys and girls, ages 7-18, will compete for titles in five divisions. The defending girls champion is Punahou School's Ashley Yamaguchi.

The final round is on Wednesday for ages 7-12 and on Thursday for ages 13-18.

Iolani's Carney selected for USAV volleyball camp

Sean Carney, an incoming sophomore at Iolani School, is one of 30 underclassmen from the western U.S. invited to the USA Volleyball's HighPerfor-mance/Development Camp at Long Beach State later this month.

Carney is a member of the Outrigger Canoe Club's 17-under team that will compete in the Junior Olympics this week in Phoenix.

Timeout

Name: Gary Loo

Age: 50

Position: Retired policeman

People would be surprised to know: I'm a cancer survivor. I've been in remission for eight to nine years.

Gary Loo has been a volunteer for almost 20 years in sports-related activities. But he never imagined that his latest project would have grown the way it has.

Loo is a volunteer coach at Brian Derby's offensive lineman camp, which began five years ago as a one-on-one help session for his son.

But it has grown into a camp with nearly 40 players, including kids as young as sixth graders to professionals.

"I asked if (Derby) could help my son," said Loo, who has been coaching football since 1970. "Other people heard about it and they wanted to come. From that time on, the program grew. People knew Brian and what he stands for and it just kind of took off."

The camp has sessions once a week from January to July. With so many kids at the camp, Loo and Derby, a former starting lineman at the University of Hawaii, have divided it into two morning sessions.

Loo doesn't look at the camp as a commitment on his part, but on the part of the kids. There are high expectations for them to work hard. But it is also a lot of fun.

"We've got some real good kids," Loo said. "It's a learning experience. For me, it's more giving back to what Brian did."

Coaching has consumed Loo's life. He was president and coach of Hui Lanakila Canoe Club for several years, but had to give it up when it became too difficult to juggle that, his job as a police officer, coaching the junior varsity at St. Louis School and coaching a high school canoe team.

And before he retired from the police force, he was also a volunteer with the Police Athletic League. He helped coach and coordinate 9-10 year olds.

"Some of it you do extra," Loo said. "We put in a lot of extra time finding other volunteers to help us with umpiring, coaching. It's a lot of free time you give back."

The time spent coordinating, coaching and organizing has been rewarding for Loo. He has derived a lot of satisfaction from watching the kids develop their raw talent into a solid product.

And he enjoys watching the kids progress through the "game of life".

"You can see that you had a (role in) their life, and that it will hopefully work out for them," Loo said. "Watching them develop is exciting."

Hawaii's own

Benny Agbayani, Mets: Early in yesterday's game, it looked as if the St. Louis School and Hawaii Pacific alumnus had finally solved Atlanta's Greg Maddux.

Agbayani came into the game just 1-for-8 against the future Hall of Famer -- with that one hit being a home run -- by singling to center in his first at-bat. He stole his third base of the season two batters later but was left stranded when Todd Pratt and Rey Ordonez grounded out.

Maddux settled back into form thereafter, forcing Agbayani to ground into a double play in the fourth and bounce out to third base to lead off the seventh.

Agbayani flew out against Steve Karsay in the ninth.

The last time Agbayani grounded into a double play was May 28 vs. Philadelphia's Ricky Bottalico. That game was also the last time he stole a base.

Agbayani has hit .288 with 12 homers in June over his career, while being held to a .269 average and two dingers in July.

Mike Fetters, Dodgers: The Iolani graduate remains on the disabled list and is eligible to return to action Thursday.

Jay Spurgeon, Orioles: The former University of Hawaii pitcher was sent back down to Triple-A Rochester before yesterday's game so that the Orioles could bring up veteran John Wasdin.

Baltimore manager Mike Hargrove cited Wasdin's "success at the major-league level" when he made the move. Wasdin was released by Colorado on June 5 after going 2-1 with a 7.03 ERA, but he has won 30 big-league games.

[WINNERS & LOSERS]

[WINNERS]

<< Stephanie Kono: Just when it looked like Michelle Wie would take all the life out of the local golf scene for the next 20 years, the 11-year-old Kono matched her peer with an ace while winning the HSWGA. All we need now is a pay-per-view showdown between the two.

James S. Oddo: The New York City councilman wrote a bill that would outlaw the use of nonwood bats in any organized league play involving minors because of the danger. If nothing else, a new law would cut down the noise pollution created by the abhorrent "ping."

Chad Santos: Judging by the past week, pitching in the Midwest League is not much better than that of the ILH. The St. Louis grad went 12-for-28 (.429) with four home runs last week.

[LOSERS]

>> Bobby Valentine: The Mets skipper laughed it off when Benny Agbayani told him that he plans on returning to Hawaii the moment he learns his pregnant wife, Niela, has gone into labor. Valentine jokingly told reporters, "I tried to hook him up with an Internet connection."

College coaches: Judging by the fact that high schoolers were chosen in three of the top four spots of the recent NBA draft, prep coaches seem to have made their collegiate counterparts obsolete.

Martina Hingis: The top seed did not last long at Wimbledon, falling in straight sets to No. 83 Virginia Ruano Pascual.