Lewis Takes Fifth--and Last--at Houston Meet

Carl Lewis is saying this is his last year in competition. And that’s where he was Saturday night in Houston--last.

The eight-time Olympic gold medalist, who turns 35 soon, lost in the men’s dash at the Gallery Furniture Games to another gold medal winner, Leroy Burrell.

Burrell clocked 6.64 before his hometown fans. Lewis was fifth in 6.84.

Two-time decathlon world champion Dan O’Brien won the 60-meter hurdles in 7.75 seconds. Two-time hurdles gold medalist Roger Kingdom was third in 7.85.

*

Olympic 100-meter champion Linford Christie hobbled off the track with a suspected groin injury after breaking down in a 60-meter race at Birmingham, England.

Tennis

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Iva Majoli won three-set semifinal matches at Tokyo in the Pan Pacific Open.

Sanchez Vicario, No. 3 in the world and seeded third in the tournament, beat fellow Spaniard and second-seeded Conchita Martinez, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Majoli, who upset top-seeded Monica Seles in the quarterfinals, rallied to defeat Martina Hingis of Switzerland, 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.

Top-seeded Goran Ivanisevic outlasted Guy Forget of France, 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-4 in the semifinals of the Croatia Indoors tournament at Zagreb. He will face Frenchman Cedric Pioline, who beat Marc Goellner of Germany, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6).

Peter Graf, the father of tennis player Steffi Graf, will take psychiatric tests in his German jail cell to see if years of pills and alcohol may allow him to plead diminished responsibility on tax evasion charges, his lawyer said.

Baseball

The Chicago White Sox signed free agent Kevin Tapani to a one-year contract. The right-hander was 10-13 as a starter for the Minnesota Twins and Dodgers last season. . . . Leo Gomez homered and Puerto Rico, featuring major leaguers Roberto Alomar and Bernie Williams, opened the Caribbean Series with a 7-2 victory over Venezuela at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republican.

Winter Sports

Germany’s Katja Seizinger took the lead in the women’s overall standings with her second World Cup victory in as many days at Val d’Isere, France.

Seizinger dominated the first of two scheduled women’s downhills, beating American rival Picabo Street by half a second. Street was left waiting at the starting gate when officials stopped the second race because of fog.

Dense fog on the Kandahar course forced organizers to call off the World Cup downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany and postpone the men’s race for 24 hours. . . .Eric Bergoust of Missoula, Mont., won his second World Cup aerials meet of the season at Kirchberg, Austria. Colette Brand of Switzerland took the women’s contest.

Soccer

Substitute striker Mark Williams scored two goals within a minute in the second half to give South Africa a 2-0 victory and the championship in its first African Cup tournament at Johannesburg, South Africa. It was the first victory for a southern African team in the African Cup, being played for the 20th time since the first tournament in 1957. . . .Arrigo Sacchi, coach of Italy’s national team, has been given a 2 1/2-year contract extension. . . . The Bahamas and Bermuda have withdrawn from the 1998 World Cup field.

Football

Green Bay Packer Coach Mike Holmgren will be coaching a familiar group on offense as he leads the NFC against the AFC in today’s Pro Bowl at Honolulu. Along with Brett Favre and Mark Chmura of Green Bay, Holmgren has coached San Francisco 49ers Steve Young, Jerry Rice and Brent Jones and Philadelphia running back Ricky Watters, all when he was an assistant in San Francisco.

Former Pittsburgh Steeler guard Terry Long was arrested in downtown Pittsburgh on Friday night on charges of disorderly conduct, aggravated assault and resisting arrest. . . . Iowa Coach Hayden Fry was given a new contract that runs through June 30, 2000.

Miscellany

Rick Acton, playing in his first Senior PGA Tour event, shot a four-under-par 67 to take a one-shot lead heading into the final round of the Royal Caribbean Classic at Key Biscayne, Fla.

A misty rain turned Daytona International Speedway’s road circuit treacherous as a Ferrari World Sports Car driven by an Italian, a Belgian and two Frenchmen held the lead in the Rolex 24 Hours race after nine hours.

A series of spins and crashes, as well as a blazing car fire, brought out a series of full-course caution flags after darkness fell on America’s premier endurance event.

Russia’s Denis Pankratov set a short-course world record of 1:52.34 in the 200-meter butterfly at a World Cup swim meet at Paris.