In brief

Shaky Slutskaya takes her sixth European title

By wire services
Published January 30, 2005

TURIN, Italy - Irina Slutskaya was lackluster in the free program Saturday but held her lead to win her sixth European figure skating title, matching the records of Katarina Witt and Sonja Henie.

"You know, that's sport," Slutskaya said. "I'm not a robot."

The Russian did three triples, fell once and looked slow and uneasy. But her gold medal gave Russia a sweep in the four events at the arena that hosts Olympic skating next year.

Slutskaya finished with 168.71 points. Susanna Poykio of Finland was second, Elena Liashenko of Ukraine third and Julia Sebestyen of Hungary fourth.

After two unsuccessful seasons in NASCAR, former Champ Car and Formula One driver Christian Fittipaldi will return to Brazil to race stock cars. Fittipaldi, nephew of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi, started 16 races in NASCAR and failed to finish better than 24th.

Musique Toujours held off Zakocity at the wire to win the $1-million Classic in the third annual Sunshine Millions. The event featured races in Florida and California. Musique Toujours, a 70-1 shot, won by a neck in the richest of the eight races - four each at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita. Musique Toujours paid $142.20 in the Classic at Miami's Gulfstream Park. Florida-breds won five of the races and outpointed California 44-28. Florida has won the event three straight years.

TAMPA BAY DOWNS: Above the Wind, an 8-year-old gelding, won his third consecutive $50,000 Super Stakes, equaling the Oldsmar track record of 1:22.60 for 7 furlongs set by Oh So Striking in 1997. Above the Wind lowered the 6-furlong Pelican Stakes mark to 1:10.04 on Jan. 1. His 6-furlong time of 1:09.40 in the Super was the fastest 6-furlong mark of the meet and only two-fifths of a second off the track record for that distance (1:09) set by Bootlegger's Pet in 1974.

The founder of the nutritional supplement firm at the center of a steroid scandal involving top American athletes is trying to avoid testifying before a grand jury that is investigating leaks of secret testimony, according to court documents in San Francisco. Victor Conte is subpoenaed to appear before the San Francisco panel Tuesday and turn over the contents of the hard drive in a computer from the San Francisco Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. The grand jury investigation led to indictments of Conte and three other men connected to BALCO.

South Florida senior Chandra Brewer won the shot put and the weight throw to lead the women's team to the title at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games at Northeastern. The Bulls scored 128 to win the 10-team event by 37 over Albany. In addition to Brewer's titles, Ashlee Ward won the 55-meter dash (7.05), Bente General won the 1,000-meter run (2:55.33) and the 4x400 relay team won in 3:53.68. Altaria Hawkins finished second in the 400-meter run in 57.74. ... Freshman Garrett Johnson of Tampa, who heaved the shot put 64 feet, 9.25 inches, was among five FSU Seminoles to win events at the Wildcat Invitational at Lexington, Ky.

BASEBALL: Sophomore Michael Hyde allowed two unearned runs over five innings as FSU (2-0) beat Charleston Southern (0-2) 9-2 at Tallahassee.

SWIMMING: Host Florida beat Tennessee's women 145-93. In 1-meter diving, freshman Sarah Ellerby of Oldsmar finished fourth. The Gator men won 143-93. ... Auburn beat FSU 172-126 at Tallahassee. Carrie Ellis of Valrico was on FSU's winning 200 medley relay team.

TENNIS: Florida's women (2-0) beat Florida International 5-0 before rain stopped the matches. ... USF's women beat Mississippi 4-3 in Oxford. USF lost the doubles matches but won the last three singles matches.

BOXING: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam kept his WBC flyweight title, stopping Noriyuki Komatsu in the fifth round in Osaka, Japan. ... IBF junior middleweight champion Kassim Ouma coasted to a 12-round decision over Kofi Jantuah in Atlantic City, N.J., on the undercard of James Leija's bout with Arturo Gatti.

HOCKEY: At least four people were killed when a charter bus with more than 20 members of a Canadian women's team struck a tractor-trailer on Interstate 390 about 30 miles south of Rochester, N.Y., authorities said. The driver of the truck, who had pulled off the road and left the cab, was one of those killed, state police trooper Dan Ireland said. The identities of the other people who died were not known. It was unclear what caused the bus to strike the tractor-trailer at about 4:40 p.m., and the bus was sliced in half.

SKIING: American Bode Miller won the super-giant slalom in Bormio, Italy, to open the world championships. It was his first win in six weeks despite nearly jumping off the course during his run.

[Last modified January 30, 2005, 00:11:11]