BRIEFLY : GOLD GOES TO GREENE.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

With one false start after another marring his earlier heats, Maurice Greene knew he had to keep calm to win the 60 meters Sunday at the World Indoor Track Championships in Maebashi, Japan.

Greene proved he could do just that, winning the gold with a time of 6.42 seconds. His own world record is 6.39.

Tim Harden, who beat Greene at the USA Championships a week ago, won the silver, improving his best time by .01 of a second to 6.43.

In the women's 60 meters, Ekaterini Thanou of Greece beat American Gail Devers by .06 seconds to win the gold at 6.96. Devers, bothered by a hamstring injury, clocked in at 7.02 seconds, slower than her indoor-season best of 6.98.

Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia and Gabriela Szabo of Romania completed their sweeps of the men's and women's 1,500-meter and 3,000-meter races.

Gebrselassie capped his distance double by winning the 1,500 meters in 3 minutes, 33.77 seconds, the fastest ever at the championships, in a heated stretch duel with Kenya's Laban Rotich.

The resilient Szabo finished off her double triumph by winning the 3,000 in 8:36.42, passing Moroccan Zahra Ouaziz on the final lap.

SKIING: After two poor downhill races on the same hill, Hermann Maier proved again that he's the best super-G racer in the world when he won in that discipline for the fourth time this season in Kvitfjell, Norway.

At the same time, Maier clinched the super-G World Cup title with 480 points, 170 more than Austrian teammate Stephan Eberharter. Maier was timed down the Olympic course in 1 minute, 30.70 seconds, .47 seconds faster than Eberharter.

BOXING: David Reid, who won the WBA super welterweight championship Saturday night, will have surgery on a droopy left eyelid. The operation will be in five days and Reid can resume training in three or four weeks, said Dan Goossen, president of America Presents, Reid's promoter.