Fittipaldi Still Recovering, but He’s Not Retiring Yet

Race driver Emerson Fittipaldi, denying speculation that he was retiring, said he hopes to race again after recuperating from a broken vertebra in his neck.

“I want to keep the doors open,” the 50-year-old Indy car driver said during a news conference at which he had been expected to announce his retirement. “It’s not the time to make a decision. I’d like to continue with competition.”

Fittipaldi said his physical therapy is going well and his immediate goal is recovering from injuries he suffered in July during the Marlboro 500, when he crashed into a wall at 230 mph.

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Michael Himes, injured in a one-car accident during the Daytona USA two-hour IMSA Endurance Championship, died at Halifax Medical Center Friday night in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Himes, 42, of Los Gatos, Calif., was driving a Honda Civic Del Sol when the accident occurred late in the race at Daytona International Speedway.

Boris Said and Shawn Hendricks, driving a Ford Mustang, won the race.

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Mark Blundell was in stable condition at a Miami hospital after crashing at nearly 200 mph during practice at CART’s Indy car spring training.

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Auto racing and other sports would be exempted from new regulations on tobacco products under a bill introduced in the House by a Tennessee Congressman. Rep. Bart Gordon introduced the bill to prohibit a Food and Drug Authority ban on tobacco brand-name sponsorship of sporting events.

Winter Sports

Alpine skiing’s governing body, which threatened to consider holding the 1998 Nagano Olympic downhill races outside Japan, recanted the statement and said there was no risk of that happening.

Mario Stecher of Austria used jumps of 90 and 88 meters to win the ski jumping portion of a Nordic combined World Cup event at the Olympic site of Hakuba, Japan. . . . Snowboarder Anton Pogue of Hood River, Ore., overcame steady snow to collect his first World Cup win in a slalom at Beaupre, Canada.

Tennis

Martina Hingis, 16, recorded her 100th pro victory, defeating Amanda Coetzer in a 45-minute quarterfinal of the Pan Pacific Open at Tokyo, 6-0, 6-1.

Top-ranked Steffi Graf also reached the semifinals, defeating fifth-seeded Iva Majoli, 6-2, 6-3.

Top-seeded Goran Ivanisevic advanced to the semifinals of the Croatian Indoor tournament when his opponent, Alex Radulescu, quit early in the second set because of back pains.

Jeff Tarango and Doug Flach, the last two Americans at the Shanghai Open in Beijing, were beaten in the semifinals. Leander Paes beat Tarango, 3-6, 6-2, 3-6, and Alexander Volkov beat Flach, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

Jurisprudence

Former Nebraska football player Riley Washington, 23, was acquitted of attempted murder and weapons charges. He had been accused of shooting and injuring Jermaine Cole outside a Lincoln convenience store Aug. 2, 1995.

Connecticut football players Shane Stafford, 20; Dactavian Newton, 23; and Murray Clayton Jr., 18, were arrested on charges of second-degree burglary, a felony, and sixth-degree larceny, a misdemeanor, according to campus police.

Cleveland Indian pitcher Jose Mesa pleaded not guilty to a rape charge, surrendered his passport and was freed on $10,000 bond two weeks before spring training.

Mesa, 30, is charged with rape, assault and other charges related to a complaint by two women he met at a Cleveland nightclub Dec. 22.

Former Miami Dolphin Mercury Morris lost his bid for a new trial in a 1982 cocaine case that tainted his career, but he vowed to keep trying to clear his name.

Miscellany

Freshman catcher Eric Munson’s two-run home run highlighted a seven-run fourth inning as USC defeated Arizona State, 12-3, in a Pacific 10 Southern Division baseball opener at Dedeaux Field.

The University of Georgia put itself on two years’ probation and recommended that it lose five football scholarships next year because of alleged infractions of NCAA recruiting rules.

Former Angel outfielder Mike Aldrete, 36, agreed to a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. . . . Minnesota shortstop Pat Meares, Detroit pitcher Omar Olivares and Atlanta pitcher Yorkis Perez agreed to one-year contracts with their respective teams.

Marathoner Josia Thugwane, the first black South African to win an Olympic gold medal, was assaulted by an irate motorist at the same spot where three car hijackers shot him five months ago.

The assault forced him to miss a ceremony honoring him as South Africa’s outstanding sports personality of 1996.

Ulis Williams, who won a gold medal in 1964 as a member of the U.S. 1,600-meter relay track team, was named president and superintendent of Compton College.