In brief

Gretzky: Sides are back at the start

By wire services
Published March 9, 2005

NEW YORK - Wayne Gretzky saw firsthand how far NHL players and owners were from ending the lockout - even at the height of frantic talks.

And when the sides get back to the bargaining table Thursday or Friday, they will begin anew.

"It seems like they're starting at square one," he said Tuesday.

Gretzky, the managing partner of the Coyotes, and Penguins player/owner Mario Lemieux took part in the previous negotiation session Feb. 19, a meeting that failed to re-start the season three days after commissioner Gary Bettman called it off.

PANTHERS: The team sent defenseman Jay Bouwmeester and forward Stephen Weiss to the Chicago Wolves of the AHL for the minor league's playoffs.

The U.S. women's national team faces France today in Ferreiras, Portugal, in the Algarve Cup. It is the first game for the Americans since longtime stars Mia Hamm , Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett retired from the team last year, and also the debut of interim coach Greg Ryan. The U.S. men also play today in an exhibition vs. Colombia in Fullerton, Calif.

WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: World governing body FIFA ordered Costa Rica to play its home match March 26 vs. Panama without spectators because fans threw objects at opposing players during a match last month vs. Mexico.

ESPN asked the U.S. District Court in Miami to declare that promoter Don King has no legal grounds for a defamation suit he filed in January. King asked for damages of more than $2.5-billion; he says he was defamed and cast in a false light during a half-hour SportsCentury segment that the network aired in May.

ELSEWHERE: Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, who began a comeback from an eight-year layoff in September, is tentatively scheduled to fight journeyman Willie Chapman March 25 in Salt Lake City. ... A proposed fight between WBC super lightweight champion Arturo Gatti and undefeated challenger Floyd Mayweather Jr., scheduled June 11, has been scratched.

SKIING: Bad weather wiped out a men's downhill training session in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, for the season-ending World Cup finals. The women race the downhill today as planned, but the men's downhill was pushed back to Thursday. American Bode Miller is trying to hold off Benjamin Raich for the overall crown.

IDITAROD: Robert Sorlie, the 2003 champion, was the first musher into Nikolai, an Alaska town of 120, on Day 3 of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Following him into Nikolai, 770 miles from Nome, were Ramy Brooks and DeeDee Jonrowe.

CYCLING: Tom Boonen won a leg of the Paris-Nice race for the second straight day in Thiers, France. Lance Armstrong finished in the pack and was 72nd overall, 1:35 behind new leader Boonen.

HORSES: Proud Accolade will miss Saturday's Louisiana Derby with a fever. ... Unbeaten Declan's Moon, last year's 2-year-old champion, is a 5-1 favorite in the second round of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

AWARDS: Cyclist Armstrong, six-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps and tennis star Roger Federer are among the male nominees for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award. Among the female nominees are Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and golfer Annika Sorenstam. The winners will be announced May 16. ... Athens Olympic chief Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki was awarded the IOC's "Women and Sport" trophy.

OLYMPICS: Two top executives of Turin's organizing committee, CEO Paolo Rota and his deputy, Marcello Pochettino, were fired less than a year before the 2006 Winter Games. Cesare Vaciago will take over as CEO, with Luciano Barra his deputy.

[Last modified March 9, 2005, 00:55:19]