BRIEFLY UCLA COACH GETS IN FIGHT.

Byline: -Daily News Wire Services

John Smith, an assistant track coach at UCLA and one of the sport's top coaches, brawled with an athlete headed to the World Championships in the lobby of a Eugene, Ore., hotel last weekend, the Eugene Register-Guard reported.

The newspaper, citing Eugene police, said Smith fought with hurdler Anjanette Kirkland, who trains in Northridge. No arrests were made and Smith, Kirkland and other witnesses gave different versions of the encounter, police told the newspaper.

Smith, who coaches world record-holder and Olympic champion Maurice Greene, is in Europe and not available for comment, according to a UCLA spokesman, who said the school will investigate the incident.

BASEBALL: Dave Snow, who built Long Beach State's baseball program into one of the best in the nation, reportedly will announce his retirement today.

Snow, 50, is not leaving the school after 13 years to pursue other coaching offers, rather to retire.

CYCLING: American Lance Armstrong won the Tour de Suisse cycling road race title in Lausanne, Switzerland, showing he's in top form for the Tour de France.

Armstrong, a two-time Tour de France winner, completed the 877-mile circuit in a total of 35 hours, 6 seconds, a solid 1:02 ahead of recent Giro winner Gilberto Simoni.

Also, tests on contents of garbage bags used by Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service team during last year's Tour de France revealed no evidence of drug use, the prosecutor's office in Paris said.

BOXING: A Manhattan judge rejected Cedric Kushner's claim he has exclusive rights to promote future fights of heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman, meaning Don King likely will promote Rahman's rematch with Lennox Lewis.

HOCKEY: Kings right wing Adam Deadmarsh had scar tissue and a small bone chip removed from his left wrist. Deadmarsh is expected to remain in a cast for three weeks. The Kings also re-signed right wing Scott Thomas to a one-year contract and goaltender Travis Scott to a two-year deal. Both were restricted free agents.

MOTOR SPORTS: A driver was killed in a crash during a qualifying run for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Witnesses said 31-year-old Ralph Chandler Bruning Jr.'s 1999 Chevrolet Monte Carlo crashed three-eighths of a mile from the starting line. Chief race steward Bill Walters confirmed the death.

Race officials said it was the third fatality in the competition's 79 years.

The car missed a right-hand turn on the twisting road to the top of the 14,110-foot mountain, went airborne and became impaled on a tree, witnesses said.

FOOTBALL: Former NFL running back Bam Morris was sentenced to 30 months in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering.

Morris, 29, whose financial fortunes have ranged from earning a career high of $1.3 million to running a bank overdraft of $30,000, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to pay the minimum fine of $10,000.

HORSE RACING: Glorious Linda beat Deviletta by a head in the $46,500 feature at Hollywood Park.