George Sheehan, Writer And Runner, Dies At 74

Dr. George Sheehan, the running guru and erudite writer who was called "Mark Twain in sneakers," died yesterday in Ocean Grove, N.J., after an eight-year fight with prostate cancer. He was 74.

Sheehan was a middle-distance runner in college, but gave up the sport when he became a cardiologist.

In 1963, Sheehan, a father of 12, resumed his running career at age 45, with the goal of breaking five minutes for the mile. He met that goal in 1969, with a 4:47.

He entered his first Boston Marathon in 1964, and 15 years later, he ran his fastest Boston Marathon at age 61 in 3 hours 1 minute.

Tennis

Three-time champion Boris Becker survived a third-set tiebreaker to beat Andrei Olhovskiy of Russia 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) in the second round of the $2.1 million Paris Open today.

Stefan Edberg, the 1990 champion, easily beat Frenchman Olivier Delaitre, 6-2, 6-3, and No. 8 seed Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine outlasted 1988 champion Amos Mansdorf of Israel, 6-7, (2-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

David Wheaton defeated Ivan Lendl 6-3, 7-5 in their first-round match, ending a dismal season for Lendl.

The $2.1 million tournament has drawn 19 of the world's top 20 players.

-- Tracy Austin fought through a spell of sloppy serving to earn a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 first-round victory over Tatiana Ignatieva of Belarus in a tournament in Oakland. Austin served up 17 double faults.

Soccer

South Korea is willing to form a joint soccer team with North Korea for the 1994 World Cup in the United States, its sports minister said today. Lee Min-sup also said his Seoul government would formally propose to North Korea that the two Koreas make a joint bid to play host to the 2002 World Cup.

Local

Sonic Coach George Karl will speak at a luncheon at noon on Nov. 9, at the downtown Bon Marche's Stewart Street Room, hosted by the Sports and Events Council of Seattle/King County. Tickets are $12 and must be ordered through Ticketmaster, 628-0888.

-- Ross Hjelseth, football coach at the University of Puget Sound since 1985, will resign at the end of the season. He will become headmaster at Life Christian Academy in Tacoma, which will open in September 1994. Puget Sound is 0-6-1 this season. Hjelseth has a UPS career mark of 34-43-2.

-- The Washington women's golf team finished the opening round of the UCLA Bruin Classic in ninth place, 11 strokes back from 18-hole co-leaders UCLA and Oklahoma.

Dodie Mazucca and Emily Martin each shot 77 for UW, which has a team total of 312. BYU's Al Lian Lim leads the field at 70.

The Huskies are in 10th - 17 strokes behind leader BYU - after 36 holes of men's competition. Bob Conrad was the low-scoring Husky at 148, ninth with 18 holes to play.