WNBA to have wider lane, extended three-point line
The WNBA made three rules changes yesterday, including widening the lane and extending the three-point line.
The lane will expand from 12 feet to 16 feet wide, matching the NBA's size.
The WNBA will move its three-point line to 20 feet, 6-1/4 inches from the basket, the distance used under international rules. That is 9-1/4 inches farther from the basket than the previous 19-9. The NBA three-point line is at 23-9.
The WNBA 30-second clock will be reset to 20 seconds instead of 30 when a defensive foul or violation occurs with fewer than 20 seconds left on a possession. Above 20 seconds, the clock will not be changed.
"The intent behind these changes is to increase our teams' offensive productivity," said Tracy Ellis-Ward, the league's director of basketball operations. "Increasing the width of the lane and the length of the three-point line are both designed to clear out space in the post so that offensive players will have greater freedom of movement."
WNBA teams averaged 68.1 points last season, a half-point increase from 2002.
Tennis
Australian standout Lleyton Hewitt said he plans to skip the 2004 Athens Olympics because the competition is too close to next year's U.S. Open.
The Olympic tournament will be played Aug. 15-22 in Greece, with the U.S. Open starting Aug. 30 in New York.
High-school football
Gordon Wood, a coach who topped the national career-victory list when he retired in 1985, died in Abilene, Texas. He was 89.
Wood, who won nine Texas state titles, coached at eight schools and was 396-91-15 in a career that started in 1940.
Skiing
Austria's Nicole Hosp was fastest in both runs in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, and won her first World Cup slalom race.
Hosp finished with a combined time of 1 minute, 37.97 seconds, 0.29 seconds ahead of Sweden's Anja Paerson, who won Tuesday's race.
• It's too early to tell how much of the men's World Cup season Croatian skier Ivica Kostelic will miss after arthroscopic knee surgery.
Vedran Pavlek, the head of the Croatian ski federation, said Kostelic could possibly return to competition Jan. 4, in Flachau, Austria, but "if he still feels pain in the next two or three days, the recovery could take up to three months."
Snowboarding
Switzerland's Urs Eiselin won a men's parallel giant-slalom race and Japan's Tomoka Takeuchi took the women's event in the U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix in Park City, Utah.
Auto racing
Open Wheel Racing Series, which has agreed to purchase the assets of Championship Auto Racing Teams, likely will drop the Indy-car series' CART name and run the 2004 season with at least 15 races and 18 cars.
Kevin Kalkhoven and Paul Gentilozzi, two of three principal investors in Open Wheel and team owners in CART, said they likely will keep the name Champ Car World Series, which was the top circuit in CART.
"We've often recognized the legacy of Champ Car, but the CART name probably is inappropriate now," Kalkhoven said on a media conference call.
Open Wheel's principal owners said they expected an Indianapolis-based bankruptcy judge's quick approval of a reorganization plan that would put publicly traded CART under private ownership.
Soccer
Aston Villa beat Chelsea 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the Carling Cup, and Middlesbrough defeated Tottenham on penalty kicks in England's second-tier cup competition. Middlesbrough prevailed 5-4 in a shootout.
Taekwondo
The U.S. Olympic Committee should halt decertification proceedings against the U.S. Taekwondo Union because the decision was based on an anti-Korean sentiment and proper procedures were not followed, according to a USTU report obtained by The Associated Press.
Horse racing
Julie Krone, a Hall of Fame jockey, has possible rib and sternum fractures, and it is unknown when she will return to riding. The 40-year-old was injured in a spill Friday.
Cycling
Lance Armstrong, 32, a five-time winner of the Tour de France, said he plans to compete in the sport's biggest event two more times.
The Texan said the 2005 Tour probably will be his last.
— Times news services