McCoy reels in Roberts

Garry McCoy won the Portuguese 500cc Grand Prix in style here yesterday, the Australian heading the championship front-runner, Kenny Roberts, over the line. McCoy, claiming his second victory of the season, took the lead on the sixth lap of the twisting 4.19-km circuit and from that point on was rarely threatened.

Garry McCoy won the Portuguese 500cc Grand Prix in style here yesterday, the Australian heading the championship front-runner, Kenny Roberts, over the line. McCoy, claiming his second victory of the season, took the lead on the sixth lap of the twisting 4.19-km circuit and from that point on was rarely threatened.

"I only looked back once and that was pretty early on," said the 28-year-old, who has returned to form after a series of disappointing results.

Roberts stretched his championship lead to 46 points over his main challenger Valentino Rossi, who staged a brilliant ride through the field to take third place. With four races remaining, the Suzuki rider has 194 championship points and Rossi admitted it would be difficult to catch the American.

In Assen, Netherlands, the Texan Colin Edwards and Noriyuki Haga, of Japan, won a race apiece in the Dutch round of the World Superbike championship. The title rivals emerged separated by only 20 points in the series with four races remaining.

Edwards, the series leader, mastered the rain-soaked track on his Honda first time out, winning by nearly 10 seconds from the Spaniard Juan Bautista Borja on a Ducati. Haga was third on his Yamaha.

Conditions improved for the second race when Haga pulled away to beat the Kawasaki of compatriot Akira Yanagawa by almost six seconds.