Pablo Morales

Marcel Gery of Canada smashed the world short-course 100-meter butterfly record today with a clocking of 52.07 seconds at a World Cup swim meet. Gery, who won a $16,000 prize for the feat, took more than half a second off the previous world mark of 52.62 set by fellow Canadian Tom Ponting in March last year. Pablo Morales of the United States holds the official world record in a 50-meter pool of 52.84 seconds.

A Panorama City man driving a pickup truck was killed Saturday in a collision with an MTA bus at an intersection, police said. Officer George Goodyear identified the man as Pablo Morales, 34. Morales was driving south on Winnetka Avenue in his 1984 Mazda pickup about 6:20 a.m., when his vehicle collided with the bus, which was traveling west on Roscoe Boulevard, Goodyear said. No other injuries were reported.

That comeback Mark Spitz tried? Two years ago? Right, that one. It failed. Technically. This we know because 25 men will swim for the United States in the Barcelona Olympics that start in two weeks and Spitz is not among them. "You could say I didn't 'win' what I attempted," Spitz said. OK, you didn't win. But that doesn't close the account. After all, Spitz's was the tsunami of comebacks.

Francie Larrieu Smith of Dallas, the former UCLA athlete, was the selection to carry the flag for the United States in the opening ceremony Saturday night. Others nominated by their team captains: Tim Austin, boxing; Larry Bird, Teresa Edwards and Magic Johnson, basketball; Chris Campbell, freestyle wrestling; Kent Ferguson, diving; Robert Foth, shooting; Nomar Garciaparra, baseball; Alexi Lalas, soccer; Pablo Morales, swimming; J.

On the June day after Nolan Ryan, a 43-year-old adult, pitched his sixth no-hitter, Mark Spitz, a 40-year-old adult, made the customary 10-minute walk from his home in Westwood to the outdoor pool at UCLA. He footed it up one hill, traversed a tony suburban neighborhood, stuttered down a steep incline to the gate, and then, under a splendorous California sky, slipped backward two decades in time.

The first night of the Pacific 10 men's swimming and diving championships produced two new champions Thursday, two repeat champions and the same leader it has for five years running--Stanford. The Cardinal, which has also won the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. title two straight years, came into the meet at the Cerritos Olympic Swim Center as the No. 1 team in the nation. No other Pac-10 school was given a chance to win this meet, which runs through Saturday, and apparently, none will.

Matt Biondi and the American men's team set a world record Sunday in winning the 400-meter medley relay at the Pan Pacific swimming championships at Tokyo. It was the third world record set by U.S. team members at the meet. The record of 3 minutes 38.28 seconds was set by Pablo Morales, John Moffet, Rick Carey and Biondi. They broke the previous record of 3:39.30, set by the U.S. team at the 1984 L.A. Olympics. Biondi's anchor split was an incredible 47.84.

Two 1988 U.S. Olympic heroes won events Friday in the opening day of the Santa Clara International Swim Meet, but their times were well off world and American records. Matt Biondi, of Castro Valley, Calif., who won seven medals in Seoul, held off Bart Pippenger of Kamiah, Idaho, who was competing for the Las Vegas Gold, to win the men's 100-meter butterfly. Biondi was clocked in 56.06 seconds, which didn't threaten Pablo Morales' world and American standard of 52.84 seconds.

Four-time Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans charged through the 1,500-meter freestyle in 16 minutes 13.81 seconds Sunday night, her fastest time in almost four years and the fastest time in the 23-year history of the Mission Viejo International Swimming Complex. The pool record, meet record, and at that time American record of 16:15.66 was set in 1978 by Kim Linehan. Evans, 21, set the American and world record of 15:52.10 in 1988.