Street Takes Lead With Victory

Skier Picabo Street raced Friday in honor of injured Swedish slalom star Thomas Fogdoe and scored her third downhill victory of the World Cup season in Are, Sweden.

Street, moving atop the downhill standings, covered the course, shortened to 1,801 meters because of a heavy snowfall, in 1 minute 9.11 seconds, finishing 0.41 seconds ahead of Germany’s Katja Seizinger. Isolde Kostner of Italy was third in 1:10.02.

Fogdoe, a former World Cup slalom champion, was paralyzed last week in a training accident.

Street, with 409 points, replaced American teammate Hilary Lindh as the downhill leader. Lindh, who finished sixth, dropped to second with 380 points. Seizinger is third with 346 but kept her lead in the World Cup overall standings with 879 points.

A year after he became the first driver in Olympic history to be disqualified because the runners of his four-man bobsled were too warm, U.S. driver Brian Shimer fell victim to more bad luck. Shimer dropped a 675-pound bobsled on his right foot, breaking his big toe, and will miss the season’s biggest race, the four-man World Championships at Winterberg, Germany, next month.

Football

Atlanta Falcon wide receiver Andre Rison, New York Giant running back David Meggett and Pittsburgh Steeler kicker Gary Anderson were among 481 NFL players who officially became free agents, many of them salary-cap victims.

Of the free agents, 328 are unrestricted, players who have four or more seasons of service whose contracts have expired. No compensation is required to sign this group, which includes Rison, Meggett and Anderson.

Also unrestricted are quarterbacks Frank Reich of Buffalo and Mark Rypien of Cleveland, defensive end Jim Jeffcoat of Dallas, kicker Matt Bahr of New England and defensive back Ronnie Lott of the New York Jets.

Gunther Cunningham, a four-year defensive assistant with the Raiders, was named defensive coordinator by the Kansas City Chiefs. . . . Former NFL star Dexter Manley, banned for life from the league for drug use, was arrested on charges of possessing crack cocaine in Houston. . . . Larry Marmie, Tennessee’s defensive coordinator, joined the UCLA staff as secondary coach, replacing A.J. Christoff. . . . Boston College and Ohio State will play in the Kickoff Classic at East Rutherford, N.J., Aug. 27. Penn State had been announced as one of the teams but withdrew.

Tennis

Mary Pierce scored a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Judith Wiesner in the quarterfinals of the Paris Open, setting up a semifinal match against Iva Majoli of Croatia, who beat Sabine Appelmans of Belgium, 6-2, 6-4. Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic outlasted Karina Habsudova of Slovakia, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, and will play top-seeded Steffi Graf.

Top-seeded Boris Becker of Germany routed doubles teammate Guy Forget of France, 7-5, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of the Muratti Time Indoor tournament in Milan, Italy. Becker will play Czech Petr Korda, who ousted countryman Slava Dosedel, 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinals. Croatian Goran Ivanisevic advanced by routing France’s Olivier Delaitre, 6-3, 6-3, and Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat German Michael Stich, 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-0.

Defending champion Todd Martin scored a 6-7 (10-8), 7-5, 6-4 victory over Greg Rusedski in the quarterfinals of the St. Jude Indoor tournament in Memphis, Tenn.

Martin will face Pete Sampras, a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 winner over Thomas Enqvist, in the semifinals today.

Unseeded Jonathan Stark beat Michael Chang, seeded second, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and advanced to the semifinals against Paul Haarhuis, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arnaud Boetsch.

Sailing

Kevin Mahaney’s Young America outmaneuvered the all-female America 3in a critical downwind tacking duel to steal the lead and sail to its first victory in the third round of the America’s Cup trials. The victory put the syndicate from Bangor, Maine, at the top of the defender scoreboard.

On the challenger course, oneAustralia marked the debut of its new boat with a victory over Spain’s Rioja de Espana; Japan’s Nippon Challenge beat an improved Sydney 95 and Team New Zealand defeated France 3.

Joe Case’s Santa Cruz 70 Mongoose from Long Beach Yacht Club finished 21 minutes ahead of Ed McDowell’s Grand Illusion in 6 days 12 hours 9 minutes 50 seconds in Del Rey Yacht Club’s 1,125-mile race from Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta.

But the ULDB 70s couldn’t overtake Hasso Plattner’s smaller Morning Glory, which was first to finish after starting a day ahead of the sleds with the handicap fleet.

Morning Glory, a Reichel/Pugh 50, finished 3 hours 16 minutes ahead of Mongoose. However, Kirk and Jocelyn Wilson’s Bay Wolf, a Santa Cruz 50 from Cabrillo Beach YC, won Performance Handicap Racing Fleet honors on corrected time.

Golf

Former Ryder Cup captains and opponents Ray Floyd and Tony Jacklin both shot five-under-par 66s and shared the first-round lead in the Senior PGA Tour’s GTE Suncoast Classic in Lutz, Fla.

Barb Thomas, looking for her first victory after 11 years on the LPGA tour, matched her career best with a 66 to take a three-stroke lead over Chris Johnson after two rounds of the 54-hole Hawaiian Ladies Open in Honolulu.

Miscellany

High wind and snow forced the cancellation of the men’s World Cup giant slalom race in Furano, Japan, after Slovenia’s Jure Kosir had taken an early lead over Italy’s Alberto Tomba. Tomba leads the overall World Cup standings with 1,050 points to 570 for Kosir. No decision was made on whether to reschedule the race.

Ted Oh, an 18-year-old high school senior from Torrance, has been granted an amateur exemption into the Nissan L.A. Open golf tournament Feb. 19-26 at Riviera Country Club.