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In brief

Woman joins men's team

Canadian Olympic star Hayley Wickenheiser signed with a men's pro team in Finland after a monthlong tryout.

Wickenheiser, 24, played three games with Salamat and agreed to a contract for the rest of the season. Terms were not disclosed.

Salamat is in a division two rungs below Finland's top league. Coach Matti Hagman said Wickenheiser held her own against solid players. She won 10 of 14 faceoffs and played 12 minutes Sunday.

Wickenheiser said more than playing in games, her aim is "practicing every day with more speed in the game and against bigger and stronger players."

OLYMPICS: Two probes under way

The U.S. Olympic Committee plans an independent investigation of Lloyd Ward after the resignation of five members angered by his exoneration on ethics charges.

The investigation coincides with a report in the Los Angeles Times that the Justice Department plans to send officials to the Dominican Republic to investigate a deal between the 2003 Pan American Games and a company with ties to Ward's brother.

Meantime, the International Olympic Committee is investigating accusations that Saddam Hussein's oldest son, the head of Iraq's Olympic association, tortured and jailed athletes.

HORSES: Best of the Rest gets test

Best of the Rest was made a 7-2 favorite for the $1-million Ocala Breeders Sales Classic, which will be Gulfstream Park's feature race in the inaugural Sunshine Millions.

The event Saturday is limited to horses bred in Florida and California in four races at Gulfstream and four at Santa Anita Park, with purses totaling $3.6-million.

Twelve 4-year-olds and up are entered in the 11/8-mile Ocala. Florida-bred Best of the Rest, an 8-year-old, drew the No. 7 post position. OBITUARY: Little Current, 32, the oldest living winner of a Triple Crown race (1974 Preakness and Belmont), died in Monroe, Wash.

ET CETERA

HIGH SCHOOLS: More than 15,000 fans, the largest crowd ever to watch a prep basketball game in North Carolina, showed up at Greensboro Coliseum to see 6-foot-7, 240-pound senior LeBron James score 32 points as St. Vincent-St. Mary's (Ohio) beat Winston-Salem Reynolds 85-56. James is considered the likely No. 1 pick in this year's NBA draft.

FIGURE SKATING: Olympic silver medalist and world champion Irina Slutskaya finished second in qualifying at the European Championships to Elena Sokolova, who ended a nearly five-year hiatus from major competition. A third Russian, Victoria Volchkova, topped another qualifying group.

OBITUARY: Harry Forbes, a longtime newspaperman at the Daily News in New York and official in U.S. Olympic boxing and synchronized swimming, died of pneumonia Sunday in San Antonio, Texas. He was 89. His wife, Margaret Swan Forbes, 83, a pioneering coach and official in synchronized swimming, survives.

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