Athletic Events

It wasn't quite bait-and-switch -- more like lift and snatch, since this is the sport of weightlifting. There was a sudden flurry of activity in the run-up to city selection for the 2011 Weightlifting World Championships. This week, the French weightlifting federation abruptly moved its proposed venue about 250 miles away, shifting from Strasbourg to Paris. Will the last-minute gambit be enough to leap past Los Angeles, the only other competitor in the field?

THINK Los Angeles is your personal playground? Have no fear of weekend traffic, mind games or the thrill of the chase? Race/LA, a local event inspired by the CBS reality television show "The Amazing Race," leads adventure seekers on a daylong, city-centric scavenger hunt.

A combination of veterans and up-and-comers are expected to headline the Jeep-Body Glove Surfbout at Lower Trestles in San Clemente. The surf contest is scheduled to begin today and run through Saturday's final, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Among the 192 professionals entered in the four-star World Qualifying Series event is Damien Hobgood of Satellite Beach, Fla., ranked 13th on the World Championship Tour. The WQS is the final qualifying step for those hoping to reach the exclusive 46-man WCT.

Mention the word "triathlon" to beginning exercisers and they'll likely quake in their running shoes, conjuring up images of uber-athletes and intense competition. But a multisport event doesn't have to be intimidating. Scaled-down versions are both motivating and doable -- even for those just getting started. They're also increasingly popular, says Mike Reilly, vice president and co-founder of Active.com, an online resource for sport and fitness events.

GLOBALIZATION may lessen exotic experiences around the planet, but an American could find inscrutable mystery right now in the Caribbean. That's because a handful of English-speaking nations deep in the Snorkel Belt speak a popular but eccentric lingo in which "over" is a noun and "wicket" has up to six definitions. In other words, they're talking cricket -- and now more than ever.

On the surface, Todd Zagurski seems the definition of ordinary. He collects art and pens, draws a regular paycheck as a vice president of a transportation company and lives in a one-story home in Long Beach with his wife and cat. But a few times a year, he takes part in bike races that last 24 hours, 50-kilometer runs and quintuple triathlons that go on for days. (That's a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run -- times five.

You need only two of the primo tickets you bought for the NCAA championship game on April 2 in Atlanta's Georgia Dome. So the next move is to scalp the extras online, where men's college basketball tournament tickets with a face value of $204 are on sale for as much as $5,800 apiece. Not so fast. The NCAA, tired of third-party brokers siphoning off money by reselling tournament tickets, is threatening to blacklist fans who are caught scalping tickets anywhere other than RazorGator.

Once upon a time, professional bowlers were sports royalty. Groupies pawed them after tournaments. Casinos blanketed them with free show tickets. Their TV ratings sometimes trumped baseball and golf. "We were like rock stars," said Carmen Salvino, a bowling icon of the 1960s and '70s. But today, as America's top lane lizards finish competing in a Fountain Valley match sponsored by Denny's, the glamour has faded. Motel 6 is the Professional Bowlers Assn.'s official lodging partner.

Today is a show-and-tell for Los Angeles sports. Today, we respond to Herb and Gus in the ice-fishing shack in Minnesota. They once went to a Dodgers game, then went home and laughed to their friends about how we all left early. Button your parkas, guys, and flick on your portable TV. Today, we atone for when we used to sell quiche at concession stands at hockey games at the Forum.

IF BEN LONDO'S game were football, he'd be as famous as Reggie Bush, the former USC running back who won last year's Heisman Trophy as the country's best college football player. More famous, actually. Londo, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo senior, has won his rugged sport's equivalent of the Heisman for two years in a row, and is intent on winning it again this season. And all Reggie Bush had to worry about was the occasional 250-pound human being coming hard at him.