A former Little Rock Marathon winner outran two black bears on a training run Wednesday in Maine.
Moninda Marube, a Kenya native who won the 2010 Little Rock Marathon with a time of 2:29.40, was out training on a nature trail in the woods near his home in Auburn, Maine, and said he encountered two charging black bears but was able to outrun them during a frantic sprint to a nearby vacant house for cover.
Marube, 38, said when he saw the bears early Wednesday his instincts kicked in and he did what he does best: run.
He told the Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine, that the bears were 20 yards away from him and a vacant house was 20 yards away in the opposite direction. So he made a run for the house, with the bears closing to within 10 yards by the time he found safety on the house's screened porch.
The bears stopped, not realizing they could've easily crashed through the flimsy porch screens, Marube said. They sniffed around for a while before wandering away.
Marube, who is currently a student at the University of Maine at Farmington, said he'd once encountered a leopard perched in a tree while alone in Africa -- but the bears were scarier.
He said he learned an important lesson from his close encounter with Maine's wildlife: "Just make peace with people. You never know when your day comes."
Re-score
The World Boxing Organization will re-score the Manny Pacquiao-Jeff Horn welterweight title fight because of the contentious unanimous decision awarded to the Australian challenger, but there is no plan to change the result.
The WBO was responding to a Philippines government department's request to review the fight after Pacquiao said the decision against him last Saturday in Brisbane, Australia, was unfair.
The Philippines Games and Amusements Board (GAB) said it based the request on protecting boxing's integrity, citing possible miscalls by the referee and judges. But the WBO reiterated its only hope of revoking the fight judges' decision rests on proving fraud in match officiating.
The fight at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium was scored 117-111 by Waleksa Roldan and 115-113 each by Chris Flores and Ramon Cerdan, with Roldan's score coming in for most criticism.
In Manila, Philippines, GAB Chairman Abraham Kahlil Mitra welcomed the WBO's decision to carry out a review, saying that even if that won't change the outcome of the contentious bout, it will send a strong signal that any sign of leniency, abuse of authority or wrongdoing would not be tolerated.
WBO President Francisco Valcarcel said five anonymous judges will review the bout, assigning their own scores to rounds.
Pacquiao, 38, and Horn, 29, have a rematch clause in their contract.
Jilted singer
Dennis K. Morgan had sang the national anthem for the NHL's Nashville Predators more than 185 times before this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But the Predators began to use famous country music stars, including Carrie Underwood, during the team's Stanley Cup run from April to June. The Predators lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final in six games.
Morgan told Canadian sports talk station SportsNet 590 The Fan (CJCL-AM) he no longer wants to work for the Predators.
"Even in the unlikely event that I was invited, I don't want to have an association with the organization any longer," Morgan told The Fan host Andrew Walker.
Morgan told Walker on Friday that his contract with the Predators expired recently, and he has not been contacted by the team since.
Sports on 07/08/2017