NHL Closing In on ’98 Olympics?

Although no final agreement has been reached for NHL players to participate in the 1998 Winter Olympics, hockey analyst Peter McNab says he knows how it will be arranged.

McNab, a former player, said it’s almost certain that the NHL will be involved in the Olympics.

“The National Hockey League will take a 10-day rest and each of the six countries that have the most players in the National Hockey League will get a bye into the final week of the Olympic series,” McNab said.

They would be joined by two other teams from the first week of the Olympics and the teams would be seeded one through eight, McNab said.

Arthur Pincus, an NHL vice president, confirmed that McNab’s account was the general framework being discussed and that discussions are ongoing with all parties, including the NHL Players Assn.

Tennis

By the time Martina Navratilova plays her doubles match in this weekend’s Fed Cup quarterfinal battle between the United States and Austria at Aventura, Fla., the result may be moot.

Under a new format for the best-of-five event, four singles matches will precede Sunday’s doubles, in which Navratilova will be making her first competitive appearance since retiring from singles last November. By then, the second-seeded Americans hope to have clinched a victory.

Navratilova and Gigi Fernandez are to play Austria’s Judith Wiesner and Petra Schwarz-Ritter.

Unseeded Austria will open with the 22nd-ranked Wiesner against last-minute U.S. replacement Amy Frazier, who will fill in for an ailing Lindsay Davenport. Mary Joe Fernandez, who said she is fully recovered from her monthlong bout with flu, will play Barbara Schett in the second singles match.

South African Amanda Coetzer and Mary Pierce of France won singles matches at Metz, France, as the countries were tied 1-1 in the first round of the Fed Cup.

Coetzer beat France’s Julie Halard, 6-2, 6-4, before Pierce came back to defeat Joannette Kruger, 6-4, 6-3, in the second singles.

France-South Africa started a day ahead of the three other World Group first-round matches because of the French presidential elections.

Top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov and his former Soviet doubles partner, Andrei Medvedev, won quarterfinal matches at the Nice Open in France to advance to a semifinal showdown.

Russia’s Kafelnikov defeated Cedric Pioline of France 6-3, 1-6, 6-0, and Medvedev, of Ukraine, beat Australian Richard Fromberg, 6-3, 6-2.

The other semifinal will match Switzerland’s Marc Rosset, a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 winner over Australia’s Mark Woodforde, against Alberto Costa, who defeated fellow Spaniard Tomas Carbonell, 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 6-4.

Top-seeded and defending champion Michael Chang beat Denmark’s Kenneth Carlsen, 6-3, 6-2, to set up a semifinal clash with fellow American Jim Courier in the $328,000 Salem Open in Hong Kong.

Courier, who beat Chang in the Japan Open semifinal last week on his way to winning the title, recovered from a first-set deficit to beat sixth-seeded Russian Alexander Volkov, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.

Motor Sports

Fourth-year Winston Cup car owner Joe Gibbs got his first pole when Bobby Labonte edged Robert Pressley and Greg Sacks for the No. 1 starting spot in Sunday’s Hanes 500 at Martinsville, Va.

Gibbs, former coach of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, was not at Martinsville Speedway to see his first-year driver guide his Chevrolet Monte Carlo to a fast lap of 93.308 m.p.h.

Mike Skinner won his third pole position in four NASCAR SuperTruck events, edging P.J. Jones by .05 seconds in qualifying for the $146,500 Ford Credit 125 at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield.

The Miss Budweiser boat, never beaten in Arizona, returned after nearly two decades to post the top qualifying time in the $150,000 Gila River Casino Unlimited Cup at Chandler, Ariz. Chip Hanauer coaxed a 142.139-m.p.h. lap out of Miss Budweiser.

Jurisprudence

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a real estate company that employed the ex-wife of former pro football star John Riggins improperly used his name to market the couple’s house after their divorce. The court upheld the decision of a Fairfax County Circuit Court jury but reduced the damages awarded to Riggins from $53,608 to $50,000.

Town & Country Properties Inc. contended that its use of the former Redskin star’s name on a handbill promoting an open house for real estate brokers was protected “commercial speech” under the First Amendment.

In Doha, Qatar, five people were arrested in connection with attempts to bribe soccer players at the World Youth Championship. All five were to be deported. Sources close to the investigation said some players had been approached by people who tried to bribe them with cash and prostitutes.

Miscellany

The San Francisco 49ers matched the offer sheet extended to guard Derrick Deese by the St. Louis Rams, thus retaining the entire offensive line that helped the 49ers win a record fifth Super Bowl in January.

Light-flyweight Pedro Pena and bantamweight Carlos Navarro of Los Angeles will join a 12-man U.S. team at the International Amateur Boxing Assn. World Championships in Berlin, May 6-14. Pena is a student at Roosevelt High. Navarro graduated last year from Manual Arts.

David Pichler of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a platform specialist, won his first national title by capturing the one-meter springboard in the National Diving Championships at Midland, Tex.