At least eight people suffocated at an overcrowded stadium during a soccer match between Liberia and Gambia yesterday in Monrovia, Liberia, a doctor and an aid worker said.

The 33,000-seat Samuel K. Doe stadium in Monrovia was packed beyond capacity for the World Cup qualifying match.

The rowdy crowd pushed up against a metal bar, causing the bar to snap and sending dozens of people careening onto the floor below. They fell onto others at the game, crushing them.

"Spectators tried all sorts of means to save [them], but could not help," said Liberian Red Cross rescue worker Emmanuel Johnson.

Hours before the start of the match, United Nations peacekeepers had closed the gates of the stadium when it became clear that the stadium already was beyond capacity.

Thousands of people entered using fraudulent tickets, stranding real ticketholders outside.


* South African double-amputee Oscar Pistorius won the 100- and 400-meter races at the Dutch Open in Emmeloord as he gears up for a bid to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Pistorius, who hopes to run the 400 at Beijing, won in 47.92 seconds at the paralympic meet, a day after finishing first in the 200. Pistorius must run the 400 under 45.55 seconds to qualify for Beijing.

* Russia's Ilia Frolov won the men's title at the modern pentathlon world championships in Budapest, Hungary, while Yahor Lapo of Belarus qualified for the Beijing Olympics by finishing third. In the team event, Russia won ahead of Ukraine and Belarus. The United States finished 10th.

Sport Stops

* Ryan Briscoe held off Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon and barely slipped through a late-race crash to win the IndyCar Series race at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis.

* Brown won its second consecutive NCAA women's rowing championship at Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif. *