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Crash Kills Ratzenberger in Formula One Qualifying

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From Staff and Wire Reports

Roland Ratzenberger, a 31-year-old rookie Formula One driver but a veteran on other circuits, was killed Saturday trying to qualify for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Italy.

Ratzenberger had driven in only one Formula One race, finishing 11th in the Pacific Grand Prix at Aida, Japan, two weeks ago after failing to qualify for the season opener in Brazil.

Ratzenberger suffered brain damage when his Simtek Ford crashed against a wall after going off the track on an S-shaped turn. He was unconscious when rescuers pulled him from the cockpit. Evacuated by helicopter, Ratzenberger was pronounced dead eight minutes after arriving at Maggiore Hospital in nearby Bologna.

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Ayrton Senna, shocked by Ratzenberger’s accident, did not drive in Saturday’s qualifying but still held the pole position for today’s race.

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Sprint-car and dirt-track driver Steve Kinser, who makes his living on half-mile and shorter tracks, pulled off the biggest upset in the history of the International Race of Champions series at 2.66-mile high-banked Talladega Superspeedway, holding off former Sports Car Club of America Trans-Am champion Jack Baldwin to win by 0.067 seconds.

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Jeff Purvis passed Jimmy Horton for the lead, then held off Bobby Bowsher for the victory in the ARCA Food World 500-kilometer stock car race at Talladega. Purvis averaged 145.960 m.p.h. and won $17,625.

Jerry Glanville, a former NFL coach who was running in his first ARCA and superspeedway event, crashed six laps from the end of the 117-lap event and finished 29th.

Tennis

Steffi Graf ousted Jana Novotna, 6-3, 6-3, and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario defeated Sabine Hack, 6-1, 6-1, to set up a repeat of last year’s final match between the world’s top two women players in the Citizen Cup tournament at Hamburg, Germany.

Defending French Open champion Sergi Bruguera advanced to the Madrid Open final with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 victory over Alex Corretja. Thomas Muster defeated Jaime Yzaga, 6-0, 5-7, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

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Top-seeded Michael Chang scored a 6-1, 6-2 victory over No. 5 MaliVai Washington and advanced to the finals of the $300,000 AT&T; Challenge in Duluth, Ga.

Chang will face second-seeded Todd Martin, who beat Wade McGuire, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).

Hockey

The U.S. team crumbled under a five-goal blitz in the second period and lost to Sweden, 6-2, in the World Hockey Championships at Alba di Canazei, Italy.

Sweden showed the form that won it the Olympic gold medal at Lillehammer two months ago, ending the Americans’ three-game winning streak.

Football

Former Oklahoma quarterback Cale Gundy has agreed to terms with the Las Vegas Posse of the Canadian Football League.

Baltimore CFL Colt owner Jim Speros said his team will keep its name despite a lawsuit filed by the Indianapolis Colts and the NFL claiming trademark infringement.

Miscellany

A day after former major league pitcher Oil Can Boyd signed with the Sioux City Explorers of the Northern League, he was charged with carrying a concealed weapon after a man shouted racial slurs at him in a bar, police said.

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About 1 a.m. CST Saturday, police got a telephone tip about a man with a gun at the bar. When officers arrived, they found a loaded .25-caliber handgun under a chair where Boyd had been sitting. Boyd was sitting outside in a car, police said.

Boyd spent 10 years in the major leagues, playing for the Red Sox, Montreal Expos and Texas Rangers. He had a record of 78-77, but he spent more than 300 days on the disabled list.

Dave Ullan of Portland State tied the Pacific 10 Conference consecutive-game hitting streak record at 37, then saw the streak come to an end in the second game of a doubleheader against Washington State.

Ullan, a junior catcher, tied the Pac-10 record set by Jeff Hammonds of Stanford in 1990 and tied by Paul LoDuca of Arizona State in 1993.

Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding has settled a dispute with her former husband, Jeff Gillooley, over a truck and motorcycle she claims he would not return. Harding also learned that her disciplinary hearing before the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. will be held June 29 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Former two-time boxing champion Donald Curry, indicted on drug conspiracy charges in Ft. Worth, was freed on $25,000 bond by a federal judge who first asked for his autograph.

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The trustees of Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., voted to change the school’s mascot from the Indian to the Eagle.

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