In brief

HealthSouth woes may affect sports

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- HealthSouth Corp.'s battle to avoid bankruptcy amid charges of accounting fraud may leave rodeos, golf tournaments and college athletic departments without company sponsorships.

HealthSouth, the biggest U.S. operator of rehabilitation hospitals, has agreements to provide discounted medical care to dozens of professional teams, more than 100 colleges and 2,500 high schools. It also provides traveling rehab centers that PGA Tour golfers can use.

The company, charged with inflating earnings by $1.4-billion since 1999, isn't planning to abandon any of its sports deals. Even so, groups such as the PGA might want to consider new sponsors rather than risk having advertising ties to HealthSouth, some marketing analysts said. There's also the risk HealthSouth will run out of money.

Many sports groups said they are monitoring the situation and haven't made changes.

COLLEGES: Auburn men lead swim

Auburn freshman George Bovell set an NCAA record in the 200-yard individual medley as the Tigers took the lead after six events at the NCAA swimming and diving championships in Austin, Texas. Bovell's time of 1 minute, 42.66 seconds broke the mark of 1:42.85 set by Nate Dusing of Texas in 2001. Auburn had 206 points, followed by Stanford (121), California (115), defending champion Texas (107) and Florida (81). Auburn won the NCAA women's title last week. The Texas men set a record in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:04.47.

GOLF: South Alabama's Ryan Gildersleeve was named Sun Belt Conference player of the week after winning his fourth individual title of the season. Gildersleeve of Clearwater set a tournament record with a three-round 205 total.

WOMEN'S HOCKEY: U.S. team delays trip

The U.S. team has delayed its trip to the Women's World Hockey Championships in Beijing because of a deadly flulike illness in China. Defending champion Canada has made the same decision, meaning the two best teams may not compete in the April 3-9 event. USA Hockey officials will monitor the situation and said the earliest the team could leave is next week. The Chinese government said nearly three-dozen people have died and almost 800 are ill from severe acute respiratory syndrome. There are more than 1,300 cases worldwide.

ET CETERA:

HORSES: A groom at Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort in Chester, W.Va., was killed when she tried to control a runaway horse during training. Lisa Jackson, 35, suffered severe head injuries when the horse bucked as she was holding it to seat the rider and she then tried to catch it.

BOXING: Undefeated heavyweight Joe Mesi settled his lawsuit against Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing, ending the firm's claim to be his exclusive promoter. The confidential settlement, approved by a U.S. district judge in Buffalo, N.Y., clears Mesi to fight Jason Curry today in Tulsa, Okla.

SOCCER: Host San Jose was eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions Cup on a late goal by Guatemala's CSD Municipal. San Jose of the MLS won 2-1 but the Guatemalan team won the home-and-home, total-goals series 5-4 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament, which determines the club champion of North and Central America and the Caribbean.

SAILING: Eight cities in southern Europe have been chosen from more than 60 around the world bidding to host Team Alinghi's defense of the America's Cup. They are Barcelona, Palma de Majorca and Valencia, Spain; Marseille, France; Naples, Porto Cervo and Elba, Italy, and Lisbon, Portugal. The list will be cut to four in May. Team Alinghi is from landlocked Switzerland.

SWIMMING: Triple world-record holder Ian Thorpe of Australia won't compete next month against the United States in Indianapolis because of a lingering illness.

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