Lemieux Decides Against World Cup Play

Mario Lemieux, still undecided about returning to the Pittsburgh Penguins, has ruled out playing for Canada in the World Cup.

“In no way should this be construed as a signal that I will not be playing for the Penguins this year,” Lemieux said Monday. “I still need a little more time to decide.”

Lemieux, 30, returned last season after sitting out the 1994-95 season to recover from chemotherapy for Hodgkin’s disease and to rest his back. If he stays away, he will forego a contract worth nearly $11 million.

Canada opens the World Cup against Russia on Aug. 29 at Vancouver, British Columbia.

Necrology

Kevin Luttrell, a Memphis football signee from Brentwood Academy, died after a boating accident at Nashville, Tenn. He was 18.

Luttrell was on a church outing at Percy Priest Lake on Sunday when he slipped off a knee board while being pulled by a boat. The board struck him in the head, said Bob Winn, an assistant athletic director at Memphis.

Pro Basketball

The New York Knicks will announce the signings of their three first-round draft picks today during a noon news conference at Madison Square Garden, the team said.

New York selected former Syracuce forward John Wallace with the 18th overall pick, took Kentucky forward Walter McCarty with the No. 19 selection and Mississippi State forward Dontae’ Jones with the 21st pick.

The Detroit Pistons signed free-agent forward Rick Mahorn, a member of their “Bad Boys” squad that won an NBA championship in 1988-89.

Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.

Alton Lister, a 37-year-old center who joined the Boston Celtics in a November trade with Milwaukee, re-signed with the team.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As expected, free-agent Dennis Rodman signed a one-year contract to remain with the Chicago Bulls.

Tennis

Thomas Enqvist, knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Olympics, routed Zimbabwe’s Byron Black, 6-1, 6-2, in the first round of the ATP Championship at Mason, Ohio.

The Swede had been off for the two weeks before the Olympics because of an inflamed left foot.

Eighth-seeded Slava Dosedel of the Czech Republic and unseeded Norwegian Christian Ruud scored first-round victories in the $300,000 San Marino International Championship at San Marino.

Dosedel defeated Sandor Noszaly of Hungary, 7-6, 6-2, prevailing, 9-7, in the tie-breaker.

Ruud made short work of Belgian Johan Van Herck, 6-1, 6-0.

Miscellany

Weber State President Paul Thompson says the school will impose sanctions on the Wildcat men’s basketball program for violating NCAA rules.

The NCAA last spring investigated WSU’s program over allegations that it had violated recruiting rules, including charges that Coach Ron Abegglen gave cash to at least one player, coaches bailed out another out of jail and that assistant coach Mark Coffman used the credit card of an assistant’s relative to pay a $600 bill for a player’s correspondence courses.

IBF light-heavyweight champion Henry Maske said he will retire after his Oct. 12 fight with Virgil Hill.

Maske, a 1988 Olympic champion, has successfully defended the IBF title 10 times since taking it from “Prince” Charles Williams in 1993.

Shelly Anderson won the Top Fuel title in the rain-delayed Northwest Nationals at Kent, Wash., beating Mike Dunn in the quickest race in NHRA history.

Anderson covered a quarter-mile at Seattle International Raceway in a career-best time of 4.663 seconds at 308 mph for her second victory of the season. Dunn finished in 4.710 at 308.85.

John Force won in Funny Car, beating Tony Pedregon and Mike Edwards used a superior reaction time to the starting light to edge Kurt Johnson in Pro Stock.

A 200-foot tall construction crane at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix tipped and fell to the ground, raising a huge cloud of dust but causing no injuries, authorities said.

The crane was being used for work on the stadium’s north side when something caused it to tip, fire officials and witnesses said.

The cab of the crane was only about 15 feet off the ground when the crane fell. It glanced off a vehicle but it did not hit the stadium as it fell. The operator escaped without injury.

The $335 million stadium will be home to the Arizona Diamondbacks when the expansion baseball team begins play in 1998.

Go for Wand never made it to the finish line in her last race, but the great filly made it to the Horse Racing Hall of Fame at Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Go for Wand, who took a fatal spill in the stretch run of the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, was enshrined in the National Racing Museum.

Also inducted were former jockey Don Brumfield, the late trainer James Conway, Kentucky Derby winner Sunday Silence, 19th-century jockey George Barbee and Sun Beau, an equine star of the late 1920s and early ‘30s.