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Published: Jun 30, 2008 12:30 AM
Modified: Jun 30, 2008 12:44 AM
 

Peters leads qualifying for equestrian team

Steffen Peters took the national Grand Prix dressage championship and earned one of four Olympic berths Sunday by winning the freestyle event at the Olympic dressage trials at Oaks Blenheim Farms in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

Peters, from San Diego, scored 79.5 percent out of a possible 100 percent in the freestyle and won the overall Grand Prix competition with an overall score of 75.863 percent aboard Ravel, a Dutch Warmblood gelding.

Debbie McDonald of Hailey, Idaho, finished second overall by scoring 73.627 percent while riding Brentina, a Hanoverian mare.

Courtney King, of New Milford, Conn., took third with a score of 73.333 percent on Harmony's Mythilus, another Dutch Warmblood gelding.

Peters will be competing in his third Olympics and McDonald in her second.

Peters won the bronze medal in team dressage in 1996, and McDonald won it in 2004.

Leslie Morse, of Beverly Hills, Calif., earned an Olympic berth despite finishing sixth with 68.551 percent aboard Kingston, a Dutch Warmblood stallion.

Since King and Peters finished fourth and fifth, respectively, on other mounts, Morse qualified as an alternate.

TEAM CANADA: Samuel Dalembert of the Philadelphia 76ers and Joel Anthony of the Miami Heat headline Canada's 12-man basketball roster for an Olympic qualifying tournament.

Canadian coach Leo Rautins named his roster Sunday, wrapping up a 10-day training camp.

"We're very excited about this team," Rautins said. "The guys have all been working extremely hard, and we're just looking forward to getting things started."

JAMAICAN TRIALS: Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown won the women's 200 meters in a world-leading 21.94 seconds, while Usain Bolt dipped under 20 seconds in the men's race Sunday in Jamaica's Olympic trials in Kingston, Jamaica.

Campbell-Brown beat Kerron Stewart, the 100 winner Saturday who had a personal-best 21.99.

Bolt had no problem in taking the men's event in 19.97 seconds.

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