Briefs | WNBA: League president reveals Comets are disbanding

WNBA

Orender says new owners couldn't be found for Houston franchise: WNBA President Donna Orender said the franchise that won the league's first four championships is disbanding.

Orender said the league-owned Houston Comets would be shut down because new owners couldn't be found.

"My outlook is to build on the fact that the league has great momentum and in Houston we didn't have the enough runway to get a deal done in time for the 2009 season," she said.

NBA Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander, the original owner of the Comets, sold the team to Houston businessman Hilton Koch last year. The WNBA took over the Comets earlier this year and began a search for a new owner.

Orender did not rule out a team returning to Houston. She said a dispersal draft for Houston players would be held next week.

The Comets won the first four WNBA titles, from 1997 to 2000.

Soccer

Cristiano Ronaldo honored: Cristiano Ronaldo, 23, won the Golden Ball awarded to the European player of the year, becoming the fourth player from English powerhouse Manchester United to earn the honor and first since fellow winger George Best in 1968.

Auto racing

Speed to compete in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Scott Speed will race full time next season in NASCAR's elite Sprint Cup Series, a move anticipated since Red Bull Racing released AJ Allmendinger to make room for the former Formula One driver.

Jimmy Elledge will be Speed's crew chief.

Horse racing

Judge rejects sale of Curlin: Ownership of Curlin, the 2007 North American Horse of the Year, remained divided after a judge's ruling in Frankfort, Ky., rejecting a proposed sale of the 4-year-old colt.

Winemaker Jess Jackson's Stonestreet Stables owns 80 percent of the continent's all-time earnings leader and had offered $4 million to buy out the remaining 20 percent interest from William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. The two disbarred attorneys are under a court order to pay $42 million to former clients they represented in a settlement over the diet drug fen-phen.

Although a court-appointed receiver recommended the transaction be approved, an attorney for Gallion and Cunningham argued $4 million was too low of a price for a share of such a promising stallion prospect.

Circuit Judge Roger Crittenden agreed to disallow it after hearing a similar plea from Angela Ford, who represents the fen-phen clients in their civil case against Gallion and Cunningham.

Curlin's ownership likely will remain split when he stands as a stallion next year at Lane's End farm near Versailles, Ky., for a $75,000 stud fee.

Track

Stanford professor contends record in 100 meters could drop to 9.48 seconds: Jamaican Usain Bolt's stunning world record in the Olympic 100-meter final in Beijing is a long way from how fast the human body can go, according to a study by a U.S. professor.

Shortly after Bolt ran 9.69 seconds despite slowing down in the final meters in Beijing in August, Stanford biology professor Mark Denny set about to estimate how fast humans will be able to run. He concluded male sprinters could eventually get the 100 record down to 9.48 seconds and women could run the distance in 10.39.

"My results ... tell us that speed has limits, but not what accounts for these limits," writes Denny, whose conclusions appeared in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Sailing

Ericsson 4 widens lead: Ericsson 4, skippered by five-time Olympic medalist Torben Grael of Brazil, made it two consecutive victories by taking the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town, South Africa, to Cochin, India, opening a seven-point lead over nearest rival Telefonica Blue.

The Volvo Ocean race started in Alicante, Spain, and is to end in St. Petersburg, Russia, in June.

NHL

Canucks lose: Kristian Huselius scored with 4:44 remaining to give host Columbus a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

Martin dies: Hubert "Pit" Martin, a four-time All-Star, died after his snowmobile plunged into an icy lake in northwestern Quebec, police said. He was 64.

Martin played 1,101 league games with Detroit, Boston, Chicago and Vancouver from 1963 to 1979 and had 809 points.

Golf

Scott is injured while bodysurfing: Adam Scott, ranked No. 17 in the world, withdrew from this week's Australian PGA Championship after injuring his right knee while bodysurfing. Manager Justin Cohen said Scott is expected to be ready to compete in the Australian Open next week.

Seattle Times news services