Street Wins Sprint Downhill

She was facing a bad slope in bad weather conditions with a bad attitude and a bad case of nerves.

But somehow, it all turned out for American Picabo Street.

In her first race after winning the world championship downhill title, Street produced a daring second run at Narvik, Norway, on Thursday to win her third World Cup race of the season with an aggregate time of 1 minute 38.38 seconds in a rare two-leg “sprint” downhill.

Street was dreading the trip down treacherous Fjellheimloeypa course.

“The snow conditions were so tough, and my attitude was so bad,” she said. “I could hardly see anything. . . . I had scared myself in practice.”

Which made the result all the more satisfying.

“It’s the sweetest victory of the season for me,” she said.

Warwara Zelenskaja of Russia, who led after the first run, finished second in 1:38.68, and Heidi Zurbriggen of Switzerland was third in 1:39.33.

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Olympic veterans Robert Pipkins and Cammy Myler won their divisions in the National Luge Championships held on the former Olympic track at New York’s Mt. Van Hoevenberg. Pipkins, who raced in the 1992 and 1994 Winter Games, recorded the best times of both heats down the .667-mile course in winning his third U.S. title. Myler won her sixth national title.

Tennis

The International Tennis Federation has ruled that Andrei Medvedev will not be able to switch allegiance from Ukraine to Russia for the Olympics this year. Medvedev has said he wants to take out Russian citizenship and play for the stronger team, runners-up in the Davis Cup for the last two years.

Under ITF rules, a player is eligible to play for an adopted team only if he has represented no other country for three years before his application. Medvedev has played for Ukraine in the Davis Cup the last three seasons.

An injury in the locker room eliminated another seeded player at the Italian Indoors tournament at Milan, a tournament already beset by the first-round elimination of the two top players.

This time, 1991 Wimbledon champion Michael Stich was ousted without a ball being hit. He aggravated his troublesome left ankle while dressing for a second-round match against Guy Forget.

For the first time in the 19-year history of the Italian Indoors, both the top-seeded player (Thomas Muster of Austria) and the second-seeded player (Boris Becker of Germany) lost in the first round.

Second-seeded Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic defeated Slovak rival Katarina Studenikova, 6-2, 6-2, to advance to the quarterfinals of a WTA tournament at Linz, Austria. Fellow Czech Helena Sukova, seeded fourth, defeated Stephanie Rottier of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-3.

Todd Woodbridge, seeded seventh, became the third Australian to reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Indoor tennis tournament at Philadelphia with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (7-1), 6-4 defeat of qualifier Vincent Spadea.

Woodbridge joins countrymen Mark Woodforde, his doubles partner, and Jason Stoltenberg in the quarterfinals.

Golf

Lee Janzen’s nine-under-par 63 was good for the first-round lead in the Doral-Ryder Open at Miami. Michael Bradley is one stroke behind and Curt Byrum two back.

Janzen led after only three rounds in all of 1995--the final round of the three tournaments he won. Janzen had only four top-10 finishes in 28 starts last year.

“What I’m looking for this year is more consistency,” said Janzen.

College Football

Chad Davis ended Washington State’s quarterback controversy by withdrawing from school to make himself available for the NFL draft. The team was divided last season over whether Davis or redshirt freshman Ryan Leaf should be the starter. Leaf started the final two games of the season, and Coach Mike Price had indicated that Leaf would be the starter heading into spring drills.

Jurisprudence

Four Clemson football players charged with rape may be suspended from school and not allowed to return until the summer of 1998, according to the (Columbia) State, a South Carolina newspaper. An appeals hearing was set for March 7.

Attorney Christopher Olson, a lawyer for the players, said Adrian Kennell Dingle, Eric Bernard Williams, Bennie K. Zeigler and Christopher Rice will plead not guilty.

New Orleans Saint linebacker Rufus Porter and his wife, Anita, were both arrested after a domestic disturbance at their Destrehan, La., home, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.

North Carolina State defensive lineman Brian Brooks was suspended from the team after being charged with stealing car stereos.

A federal jury awarded $13.1 million to six former Seattle SuperSonic ticket-account executives who sued the team, its owners and business operations over their firings in December 1994.

The defendants say they will appeal.

The former employees contend they were fired for pressing the SuperSonics to comply with federal wage and hour laws--notably overtime provisions.

SuperSonic President Bill Ackerley, a defendant in the case, testified that the mass firings and shutdown of the ticket-sales department were a result of restructuring.

Swimming

FINA, swimming’s international governing body, has asked U.S. officials for documents related to Jessica Foschi’s steroid case. FINA will review U.S. Swimming’s controversial decision to reinstate Foschi a week after sanctioning the Long Island teenager. FINA will consider whether to impose a two-year suspension on the Olympic hopeful, who tested positive at last summer’s nationals in Pasadena. Foschi, a distance freestyler, denied she knowingly took the banned substance.

Names in the News

Na’il Diggs, one of the Southland’s top high school football recruits, is going to Ohio State. A 6-foot-4, 220-pound linebacker from Dorsey High, Diggs had signed a letter of intent with USC on Feb. 6, but asked for the letter back after USC basketball coach Charlie Parker was fired the next day. Diggs’ sister, Roslyn, lives with Parker. . . . Norma Olsen, who campaigned to bring synchronized swimming to the Olympics, died Sunday in Oakland at 89.