Injured Red Wings’ Limo Driver Sentenced

The limousine driver whose wreck left two Detroit Red Wings comatose was sentenced Friday at Bloomfield Hills, Mich., to nine months in jail. He was also ordered to perform 200 hours of community service at a facility for patients with head injuries.

Richard Gnida’s jail term will be followed by 15 months’ probation. It was his second conviction for driving with a suspended license.

The judge also ordered Gnida to get drug and alcohol counseling and to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings four times weekly when he gets out of jail.

The crash June 13 left Red Wing defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov and team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov in comas for several weeks. Gnida and Red Wing defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov suffered minor injuries.

“You shattered lives,” District Judge Kimberly Small told Gnida. “Based on your behavior, you have a serious drug and alcohol problem. And what scares me is you don’t know it.”

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Charges against four men accused of manslaughter in the death of three-time Formula One driving champion Ayrton Senna may be dropped.

The prosecutor in the 9-month-old trial at Imola, Italy, moved to dismiss charges against car owner Frank Williams and three officials of the San Marino Grand Prix, at which the Brazilian driver was killed in 1994.

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A judge in Green Bay, Wis., reversed her earlier decision to sentence Packer nose tackle Gilbert Brown to one year of probation for shoving his girlfriend during an argument last summer. Instead, Brown was ordered to pay $500 to a domestic-abuse shelter.

Bischel retained other portions of her sentence calling for Brown to receive anger-management counseling, perform 20 hours of community service and pay $130 in court costs.

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The Metro-Dade Department of Corrections said it was investigating whether baseball player Jose Canseco received special treatment from jailers while he awaited a bond hearing in Miami on a domestic-violence charge.

A department video shows smiling guards snapping photos with the Oakland Athletics’ slugger, apparently using a camera belonging to the jail. Canseco, 33, was arrested early Thursday and charged with simple battery for hitting his wife, Jessica, 24.

Tennis

Nathalie Tauziat used her touch at the net and precise passing shots to upset top-seeded and defending champion Jana Novotna, 7-5, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the Ameritech Cup at Chicago.

Tauziat will face French Open champion Iva Majoli in one of today’s semifinals. Majoli, struggling to regain her form, rallied to beat Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

In another quarterfinal, Lindsay Davenport of Newport Beach beat Lisa Raymond, 6-4, 6-4.

Top-seeded Pat Rafter beat Tim Henman, 6-3, 6-3, in quarterfinals for his third consecutive straight-set victory in the Stockholm Open in Sweden.

Greg Rusedski of Britain, whom Rafter beat in the U.S. Open final, advanced to the semifinals without hitting a shot, because Magnus Larsson of Sweden withdrew because of illness.

Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands downed Wimbledon finalist Cedric Pioline of France, 6-4, 6-2, and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden beat Karol Kucera of Slovakia 6-3, 6-2.

Top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov defeated his former teammate on the Soviet junior team, Sargis Sargsian of Armenia, 6-1, 6-2, to reach the semifinals of the $1,125,000 Kremlin Cup at Moscow.

In today’s semifinals, Kafelnikov will play qualifier Daniel Nestor of Canada, ranked 148th in the world. Nestor defeated Martin Damm of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-4. Second-seeded Petr Korda of the Czech Republic will meet Wayne Black of Zimbabwe in the other semifinal.

Golf

Sherri Steinhauer, in the running for a spot in the LPGA’s season-ending Tour Championship, was one of four women to shoot an opening-round 67, five under par, for a share of the lead in the Japan Queens Cup at Otsu.

LPGA Championship winner Chris Johnson, England’s Helen Dobson and Japan’s Yuko Moriguchi also were tied for first place.

Steinhauer is $2,185 behind Meg Mallon on the money-winning list for the final spot in the 30-player field Nov. 20-23 at Las Vegas. Mallon is not entered in the Japan Queens Cup.

Mark Calcavecchia, who managed to get in only eight holes in Thursday’s rain-delayed first round, played 28 Friday and wound up with a tournament-record 62 in the opening round of the Sarazen World Open golf tournament at Braselton, Ga.

After a 20-minute break, he played the second round and shot a 67 for a 129 total, 15-under-par and a commanding seven strokes ahead of the field at the halfway mark.

Miscellany

Wojciechowiez S. Wojtkiewiez, the unofficial field manager for UCLA football better known as “Bow Wow,” died Friday morning at the UCLA Medical Center.

He had been hospitalized since Wednesday night after suffering a stroke. Services will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. at St. Paul the Apostle Church in West Los Angeles.

Nine weightlifters kicked out of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s main training center at St. Joseph, Mo., met with sports officials to discuss charges that they used steroids, cocaine and other drugs.

The nine were suspended last month from the national programs of USA Weightlifting but remained eligible to compete.

Tennessee, winner of the last two national championships in women’s college basketball, was an overwhelming choice for No. 1 in AP’s preseason poll. Louisiana Tech is ranked second.

Tennessee received 35 of 40 first-place votes from a national media panel.

Canadian Marc Gagnon took the lead in the short-track speedskating Olympic qualifying competition at The Hague, Netherlands, winning the 1,000-meter final in 1 minute 32.761 seconds.

Kim Jun-Mi of South Korea won the women’s 1,000 in 1:35.811, edging Canadian Isabelle Charest by .182 seconds.

Chevrolet driver Mike McLaughlin edged rookie Steve Park to win the pole for Sunday’s Jiffy Lube 300 Busch series race at Homestead, Fla. McLaughlin toured the revamped, 1.5-mile Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex at 147.771 mph. Park, also driving a Chevy, qualified at 147.739.

About 100 University of North Carolina students turned out for a rally to protest the school’s $7.1-million Nike contract. The company is alleged to use foreign manufacturers who run sweatshops.

Organized by the Nike Awareness Campaign, the rally was held outside the office of chancellor Michael Hooker, who defended the contract and said Nike wasn’t the only sports equipment company with labor issues.

A three-time Florida state champion wrestler collapsed and died during a workout at Campbell University at Buies Creek, N.C.

Billy Jack Saylor, 19, a native of Wellborn, Fla., who wrestled at 190 pounds for Campbell, had been trying to lose weight for a weekend tournament in New York, officials said.