Sports briefs 6/26/06

Baseball

• The Chicago Cubs activated slugger Derrek Lee from the disabled list on Sunday, and he was in the lineup at designated hitter against the Twins one day sooner than initially planned.

Lee, who missed 59 games after breaking his wrist April 19, went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts in the Cubs' 8-1 loss.

The Cubs wanted to wait until today's home game against Milwaukee to give him two rehabilitation starts at Triple-A Iowa, but injuries to Freddie Bynum and Tony Womack on Saturday night forced Lee back after just one minor league game.

Bynum went on the 15-day DL with right shoulder inflammation.

Lee went 1-for-4 with an RBI in Saturday night's game with the Iowa Cubs in Des Moines, then had to drive the four hours to the Twin Cities because he couldn't get a flight in time for the 1:10 p.m. start.

The Cubs started the season 9-5 with Lee in the lineup, but went 19-40 in his absence.

Track

• Two years after becoming an American, Bernard Lagat made history in his first U.S. track and field championships.

The two-time Olympic medalist for Kenya is the first runner to sweep the 1,500 and 5,000 meters at the U.S. meet.

Lashinda Demus (400 hurdles), Dominique Arnold (110 hurdles), Walter Davis (triple jump), Wallace Spearmon (200), Khadevis Robinson (800) and Tora Harris (high jump) all had world-leading efforts Sunday.

Demus ran the fastest 400 hurdles by an American in eight years, defending her title with a 53.07-second clocking.

-- The Associated Press