Sports in Brief: World champion swimmer, 26, dies in training camp

World champion swimmer

Alexander Dale Oen

of Norway died suddenly from cardiac arrest during a pre-Olympic training camp in Flagstaff, Ariz. He was 26.

Dale Oen, one of Norway's biggest medal hopes for the London Olympics, was found collapsed on his bathroom floor late Monday and was pronounced dead shortly afterward at Flagstaff Medical Center, Norwegian swimming federation President Per Rune Eknes confirmed on Tuesday. He said it was still unclear what led to the cardiac arrest.

Dale Oen won the 100-meter breaststroke at last year's world championships in Shanghai.

SOCCER: Liverpool suffered an own goal from defender Martin Skrtel in a 1-0 home loss to Fulham in the English Premier League and had its hopes of taking a victory into next Saturday's FA Cup final against Chelsea dashed.

In the night's other match, Everton's chances of finishing above its Merseyside rival in the league for the first time since 2005 were improved after a 1-1 tie with host Stoke City. Cameron Jerome scored in the 69th minute for the Potters, canceling out a 44th minute own goal by Peter Crouch - the 1,000th goal in the league this season.

As expected, West Bromwich Albion's Roy Hodgson was hired as England national team manager, with barely six weeks to prepare his squad for the European championship starting June 11.

The New York Red Bulls announced Major League Soccer leading scorer Thierry Henry is going to miss up to four weeks with a strained right hamstring.

The Seattle Sounders' Eddie Johnson, who scored the game-winner Saturday in a 2-1 victory over the host Chicago Fire, was fined by MLS for making an inappropriate gesture at the end of the match.

COLLEGES: James Johnson, a career assistant who spent the last five years at Virginia Tech, was promoted to head coach. The 40-year-old replaced Seth Greenberg, who was fired last week.

Rutgers coach Mike Rice named Josh Loeffler director of basketball operations for its men's program. Loeffler, a West Grove native who is a Swarthmore University grad, spent the past four seasons as an assistant at Lafayette.

Renaldo Woolridge, a son of former NBA player Orlando Woolridge, will play for Southern California next season. The forward is set to graduate from Tennessee this summer with a degree in sociology and has been granted an extra year of eligibility due to injury.

TENNIS: Colombian qualifier Robert Farah upset defending champion Nikolay Davydenko, 6-3, 6-2, in the opening round of the BMW Open in Stuttgart, Germany. The seventh-seeded Russian dropped serve four times.

Ryan Harrison of the United States lost, 6-3, 6-3, to Joao Souza of Brazil in the first round of the Serbia Open in Belgrade.

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic is sitting out his home tournament after the death of his grandfather.

AUTO RACING: The bank that held the mortgage on property owned by former NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield bought the North Carolina home at a courthouse auction.

Carolina Farm Credit bid more than $1.7 million for the home and land owned by Mayfield, who was suspended from NASCAR after testing positive for methamphetamine in 2009.

Mayfield and his wife, Shana, had taken out two mortgages from Carolina Farm Credit in 2006 on the property for more than $3 million. They last made a payment in April 2011.

- Staff and wire reports