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Light winds plague women sailors

By DORAN CUSHING, Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 28, 2000

Having lost the first day of racing Sunday because of rainy, windless conditions, the delayed opening round of the Rolex 2000 ISAF Women's Match Racing Championship was sailed in light and shifty conditions Monday.

After a brief postponement in the morning and another in the afternoon because of light winds on Tampa Bay, 36 matches were sailed with another 22 remaining to complete the first round robin.

The top eight teams in the international regatta had a bye and will start racing today if the first series can be completed. The eight lowest-scoring teams will be eliminated today.

The world championship, with 24 teams representing 17 countries, continues through Saturday at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

AMATEUR ATHLETICS: The International Amateur Athletic Federation will award prize money to more athletes -- not just medalists -- at next year's world championships and other events. For the World Outdoor Championships in Canada next summer, the top eight athletes in each of the individual events -- instead of the top three -- will receive prize money. Winners will get $60,000.

AUTOS: Jeff Burton will join South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges today to endorse NASCAR vanity license plates. The bill needs state legislative approval. If passed, motorists could get license plates honoring drivers like Burton, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace and Bobby Labonte. The plates would cost about $60. Part of the money would go to the Children's Emergency Shelter Foundation.

CYCLING: Lance Armstrong won Britain's top sports literary prize for his autobiography It's Not About the Bike. The story is built on Armstrong's recovery from testicular cancer to win the Tour de France in 1999, a feat he repeated last summer.

OLYMPICS: Spanish officials will investigate accusations that athletes without disabilities competed in the recent Paralympics in Sydney. He said a special commission will investigate. No timetable was given. Carlos Ribagorda, a member of the country's gold medal-winning basketball team, said last week he and other medal winners were not mentally disabled. Ribagorda made the accusations in Capital magazine, for which he works as a journalist. He said as many as 15 members of Spain's Paralympic team -- in track, table tennis and swimming -- were not disabled. ... Nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers want the Summer Games to come to their city in 2012. According to a Quinnipiac University poll, 64 percent of New York City voters like the idea of the city being the Olympic host. Twenty-nine percent are opposed, and the rest are undecided. But 55 percent say it's unwise to build a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan for the Olympics, with 38 percent saying it's a good idea and 7 percent undecided. New Yorkers oppose the use of tax dollars to build the West Side stadium by a margin of 71 percent to 25 percent.

SOCCER: Nine players and a coach were arrested following a brawl involving Uruguay's top two soccer teams. The melee took place moments after the end of Sunday's game between Penarol and Nacional, which ended 1-1. Four players from Uruguay's national team, a defender from Brazil's national team and Penarol coach Julio Ribas were among those arrested. They could receive two-week prison sentences, and the Uruguayan Football Association can be expected to take disciplinary action.

TENNIS: Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi are not sure they will play Davis Cup next year. "I don't know," Sampras said the day before the Masters Cup starts in Lisbon, Portugal. "I'll probably decide after this event and try to finalize my schedule." In a sign of where the event ranks on their list of priorities, neither has been thinking about it all that much. "It hasn't been on my mind yet," Agassi said.

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