Hockey Player Is Found Dead

New York Ranger forward Roman Lyashenko was found dead in a hotel room while vacationing in Turkey.

The Rangers said Monday the cause of death wasn’t immediately known. However, Turkey’s Anatolia news agency reported it was a suicide.

Yuri Koritskiy, a Russian consular official, said the 24-year-old player had been with his mother and sister in Antalya, a southern Mediterranean resort province popular with Russian and other European tourists. He said Lyashenko died Saturday but would not provide other details.

The Anatolia news agency said Lyashenko apparently hanged himself with a belt.

Lyashenko played regularly with the Dallas Stars his first two seasons in the NHL, then was traded to the New York Rangers late in the 2001-02 season. Last season, the forward played two games with New York, spending most of the year with Hartford for the American Hockey League, where he had 23 goals and 35 assists.

“Roman was a quality individual who had a positive impact on everyone he touched, both on and off the ice,” said Glen Sather, the Ranger president, general manager and coach.

Tennis

Seventh-seeded Justin Gimelstob won a tiebreaker to beat Jeff Morrison in the opening round of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships at Newport, R.I.

Gimelstob won, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (13). He failed in six match points before Morrison hit a backhand long to end the 2-hour 26-minute match.

In other matches, fourth-seeded Robby Ginepri beat Prakash Amritraj, 6-1, 6-4, and No. 8 Jurgen Melzer of Austria beat Nicolas Thomann of France, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4.

Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador won first-round matches in straight sets in the Swedish Open at Bastad.

Youzhny, seeded fourth, edged Olivier Rochus of Belgium, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1), and Lapentti, seeded sixth, beat Luis Horna of Peru, 6-4, 7-5.

Jurisprudence

Jose Canseco has a history of steroid abuse, his lawyers said in an unsuccessful effort to hospitalize him for an addiction evaluation.

The request for a three- to five-day hospital stay for a medical work-up was made as the former baseball MVP returned to jail for a July 21 hearing.

He is charged with violating probation from a nightclub scuffle by using illegal steroids last month while serving two years of house arrest.

USC offensive lineman Winston Justice is scheduled to be arraigned today in Long Beach Superior Court after being arrested in a prostitution sting on June 24.

Justice, 18, has been free on bail since allegedly soliciting an undercover officer. Justice faces a misdemeanor charge, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, according to a spokesman for the Long Beach city prosecutor’s office.

Auburn linebacker Lemarcus Rowell was suspended indefinitely after being charged with marijuana possession and driving under the influence.

Miscellany

Rick Neuheisel has again appealed his firing as football coach at Washington.

Neuheisel appealed his gambling-related firing to university vice president Norm Arkans. The vice president for external affairs is out of the office until July 15 and could not be reached to comment on Neuheisel’s appeal.

George Horton was named national coach of the year by Baseball America after leading Cal State Fullerton to a 50-16 record and a tie for third place in the College World Series. Horton, 49, has taken the Titans to the College World Series three of the last five years.

Former USC men’s basketball assistant Silvey Dominguez has been hired as an assistant at Wyoming. Dominguez, 50, was an assistant at Utah last season.

Rio de Janeiro was chosen as Brazil’s candidate to play host to the 2012 Summer Olympics, joining a strong international field of bidders. The other candidates for 2012 are Moscow; New York; London; Paris; Madrid; Havana; Leipzig, Germany; and Istanbul, Turkey.

Passings

Clarence Cagle, who was track superintendent of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for more than 30 years and helped restore the track after World War II, died Saturday at 88. See Section B.