Granato leads hockey hall of fame list
COLORADO SPRINGS, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Cammi Granato, who helped the U.S. women to the 1998 Olympic gold medal, will be the first woman inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Hall of Fame officials Tuesday said Granato, Brett Hull, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter make up the hall's class of 2008. Induction ceremonies are scheduled for Oct. 10 in Denver.
Granato was a 15-year veteran of the U.S. women's national team. She is the national team's all-time leading scorer with 343 points -- 186 goals and 157 assists -- over 205 games.
Hull, third on the all-time NHL scoring list with 741 goals, was on two Stanley Cup-winning teams during his 20-year NHL career.
Leetch, a native Texan, was an 11-time All-Star during his 18 years in the NHL. A two-time Norris Trophy winner, he is one of seven defensemen to total more than 1,000 points (1,028) over his career.
Richter played his entire 14-year career in New York and was a teammate of Leetch's in 1993-94 when the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup since 1940. He ranks first in team history with 301 wins in 666 games and was selected to three All-Star teams.
USA coasts through win over Angola
BEIJING, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Dwyane Wade scored 19 points Tuesday and the United States gave just enough effort to down Angola in the Olympic basketball tournament 97-76.
Superstars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant were given plenty of rest by Coach Mike Krzyzewski against the lightly regarded opponent, which lost by 29 points to Germany in its Olympic opener.
Dwight Howard put the Americans in front to stay with a shot in the lane with 5:59 to play in the first period and the United States eventually began to pull away.
Spain and the United States are tied for first place in Group B with 2-0 records. The Americans will meet Greece (1-1) Thursday in what should be their most difficult game to date.
Greece blasted Germany Tuesday 87-64.
In the most entertaining game of the tournament, Spain survived with an 85-75 victory over China in overtime. Marc Gasol tied the game for Spain with 19 seconds left in regulation.
Lithuania and Croatia took control of Group A with victories. Lithuania downed Iran 99-67 and Croatia defeated Russia 85-78.
Nadal, Federer advance in Olympic tennis
BEIJING, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Rafael Nadal of Spain and Roger Federer of Switzerland advanced to the round of 16 at the Olympics Tuesday while the Williams sisters moved on as well.
Nadal, who will become No. 1 player in the world when the new computer rankings come out later this month, breezed past Lleyton Hewit of Australia in their second-round meeting 6-1, 6-2.
Federer, hoping for his first Olympic gold medal in three tries, was a 6-2. 6-4 winner over lightly regarded Rafael Arevalo of El Salvador.
In the women's draw, Venus Williams breezed by Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4. Her sister Serena had no problems with Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-2, 6-0.
Among those reaching the round of 16 on the men's side were Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, Oliver Rochus of Belgium and American James Blake.
1,600-meter relay mark rescinded
BEIJING, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The international body governing track and field has rescinded a 1,600-meter relay record set in 1998 and restored a mark set in 1993 as the world record.
The record was returned to U.S. runners Andrew Vlamon, Quincy Watts, Harry Reynolds and Michael Johnson, who ran a 2:54.29 on Aug. 22, 1993, in a meet in Germany.
The International Association of Athletics Federations disqualified a mark of 2:54.20 set in July 1998 after a member of the team admitted to doping violations.
Antonio Pettigrew, Jerome Young, Tyree Washington and Johnson set the 1998 record, but Pettigrew has since admitted to using human growth hormone and erythropoietin from 1997-2003. The IAAF on Tuesday said it was disallowing the record the foursome had set.
Pettigrew was on the U.S. 1,600-meter relay team that won the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, another result that has been wiped out because of Pettigrew's doping admissions.
Chuckwagon race horse deaths investigated
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association announced an inquiry into how as many as eight horses were killed in a competition in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
The animals died Sunday during four days of events at Marquis Downs, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported Tuesday.
The newspaper said the number of fatal crashes was "freakishly huge," as described by veteran driver Neal Walgenbach. "Usually, you're unlucky enough to have (eight killed) through a whole summer, and that's a very high number for a whole summer," he said.
Driver Ray Mitsuing claimed one pull horse and seven outriding horses had to be euthanized after a series of crashes he blamed on poor track conditions. However, Mark Regier, the chief executive officer of Marquis Downs said the information he's received about the nature of the broken legs indicated it couldn't be a track problem, the newspaper said.
Chuckwagon races, popular events on the rodeo circuit, are run by teams of four horses accompanied by outriders racing in a figure-8 formation.
