Street Finishes Season on Winning Streak

Picabo Street closed out her season with her fifth consecutive downhill victory, this at the Alpine Skiing World Cup finals on Wednesday at Bormio, Italy.

Street, 23, of Sun Valley, Ida., had already clinched the women’s World Cup downhill title. She won Wednesday’s race in 1 minute 38.41 seconds. It was her sixth victory in nine downhill races.

Warwara Zelenskaja of Russia finished second to Street for the third consecutive time, clocking 1:38.50. Italy’s Barbara Merlin was third in 1:38.71.

Also at the event, Alberto Tomba of Italy, a slalom specialist, clinched his first World Cup overall title without skiing when his nearest competitor, five-time champion Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg, finished 17th in the last downhill and lost any hope of catching him.

France’s Luc Alphand won the downhill in 1:53.50 to earn the World Cup downhill title. AJ Kitt was second, 0.29 seconds behind Alphand.

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Japan, having taken control in the ski jumping portion, cruised to victory by nearly three minutes in the Nordic combined four-man team event at the Nordic Skiing World Championships at Thunder Bay, Canada.

Football

Receiver Andre Rison, leaving the Atlanta Falcons as an unrestricted free agent, said he will play for the Cleveland Browns next season.

Michael Timpson, who caught 74 passes for New England last season, joined the Chicago Bears after the Patriots declined to match a three-year, $4.5-million offer sheet he signed a week ago.

Jurisprudence

Former Miami Dolphin receiver Mark Duper and his brother-in-law, Brian Briggs, were cleared by a federal jury of charges of conspiracy and cocaine possession with intent to distribute.

Sentencing of former Dodger outfielder Darryl Strawberry on one count of income tax evasion was delayed until April 24.

Strawberry pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion in a White Plains, N.Y., federal court Feb. 9 and agreed to a three-month jail sentence.

Former New England Patriot receiver Hart Lee Dykes is suing Lloyd’s of London, asking that the insurance house make good on $1.7 million in claims against policies he says he bought to insure himself against career-ending injuries. Dykes was released by the Patriots in 1993 after a series of leg injuries.

Boxing

Roy Jones Jr. has agreed that if he is successful in his International Boxing Federation super-middleweight title defense Saturday against Antoine Byrd, he will defend next against Vinny Pazienza on June 24, according to Pazienza’s promoter Bill Cayton.

Madison Square Garden is the front-runner to stage a proposed heavyweight fight between Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson, according to Bowe’s manager.

Rock Newman said he is aiming to hold the bout between October 1995 and June 1996.

Tyson will complete his rape sentence in Indiana on March 25.

Miscellany

Mel Stewart won his 12th national 200-meter butterfly title in the Phillips 66 National Swimming Championships, timed in a pool-record 1:58.24 at the University of Minnesota.

Mexico, citing its national financial crisis, withdrew as host of the 1997 World Championships of track and field, leaving Greece and Spain among the potential replacement hosts.

Tim Middleton upset second-seeded Austrian Thomas Muster, 7-5, 6-3, in the first round of the St. Petersburg Open in Russia. Top-seeded Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov defeated sixth-seeded Anders Jarryd, 6-1, 7-5.

Names in the News

Former 10,000-meter world champion Paul Kipkoech, who led the charge of Kenya’s runners into domination of international distance events, died at 33.