Optimistic Zanardi Goes Home

Alex Zanardi was released from a hospital in Berlin on Tuesday six weeks after his legs were amputated. He spoke of possibly racing again.

“I feel I brought home the best and the most of myself,” the two-time CART champion said. “I didn’t lose much. I got to know the importance of the love of family and friends. Sometimes in life we forget what we have.”

Zanardi, one of CART’s most popular drivers, said his first priority is to walk using artificial legs. But he hopes that someday he may be able to get behind the wheel of a race car again.

“Motor racing has been a great passion of my life, not only my job, and maybe one day if I am able I will [race again],” he said. “But the reality is I don’t know what I will be able to do right now.”

Zanardi was injured while leading the American Memorial 500, the first CART race held in Europe, with 12 laps left. As he pulled out of the pits, his Honda Reynard got away from him and he spun backward into the path of Alex Tagliani, who hit his car at 200 mph and sheared it in half.

Zanardi was airlifted to a hospital in Berlin that specializes in treating accident victims. Zanardi lost 70% of his blood and both legs were amputated halfway up his thighs.

“He was lucky to even reach the hospital,” said Dr. Walter Schaffartzik, one of the physicians who worked on Zanardi when he arrived. “It was a very critical situation.”

Schaffartzik said it most likely would be a year or two before Zanardi can walk again. But if therapy goes well, he added, Zanardi will be able to move about without crutches and will at least be able to drive a regular car.

Zanardi, who turned 35 in the hospital, said he has spoken with Tagliani and told him emphatically the accident was “absolutely not his fault.”

Tennis

Intent on keeping her No. 1 ranking, Jennifer Capriati regrouped after a rough first set and beat Bulgaria’s Magdalena Maleeva at the Sanex Championships in Munich, Germany.

Capriati wasted two match points before winning, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, and taking an important step in holding off Lindsay Davenport for the top spot in women’s tennis.

Seventh-seeded Serena Williams routed Silvia Farina-Elia of Italy, 6-0, 6-2. It was Williams’ first match since she lost the U.S. Open final in September.

Sandrine Testud upset fifth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo, 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, in an all-French match. Mauresmo was the first seeded player to lose.

If Capriati had lost, Davenport could have passed her for the top ranking by reaching the final. Davenport has won a title in three straight weeks, drawing within a few computer points of Capriati.

Lleyton Hewitt, weakened by a stomach problem, hurt his chances of finishing the year at No. 1 when he lost to Ecuador’s Nicolas Lapentti, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, at the Paris Masters.

Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic also exited in his opening match, wasting two match points in a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6) loss to Sweden’s Andreas Vinciguerra.

Top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten broke a five-match losing streak, eliminating Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-4, in the second round.

Hewitt has another shot at overtaking Kuerten for the No. 1 spot at the season-ending Masters Cup in Sydney. He trails the Brazilian by 34 points.

College Basketball

Boston College junior guard Troy Bell will be sidelined two to six weeks after tearing cartilage in his right knee. Bell, last season’s Big East Conference co-player of the year, will undergo arthroscopic surgery today.

Last season, Bell averaged 20.1 points and helped Boston College win the conference’s regular-season and tournament titles.

Tennessee junior forward Ron Slay has a stress fracture in his right leg and will be out for at least two weeks. Slay, the second-leading scorer last season, told coaches he was hurting Sunday during practice.

Miscellany

A German ski coach was under investigation for possibly causing the accident that left French World Cup champion Regine Cavagnoud on a respirator with serious brain damage.

Coach Markus Anwander also was on a respirator but was not injured quite as badly as the 31-year-old super-G World Cup champion in the crash on an Austrian glacier on Monday during practice.

German and French ski officials said the accident was caused by communication problems between their teams, which were both practicing on the Pitzhal glacier.

The Austrian prosecutor has begun investigating. Spokesman Rudolf Koll said the coach may be responsible for the accident.

“He arrived on the track and was the cause of what happened,” Koll said.

Nureyev, a champion European racehorse, died at 24 about a month after surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in his right front foot.

A son of the great Northern Dancer out of Special, Nureyev was bred at Claiborne Farm and topped the 1978 Keeneland July Select Yearling Sale with a winning bid of $1.3 million.

A year after being stripped of an Olympic gold medal in a drug case, Andreea Raducan helped Romania pass the United States for the top qualifying spot at the World Gymnastics Championships at Ghent, Belgium.

Raducan led the floor event, was second on the beam and reached the finals in the vault. Raducan, who lost the all-around title in Sydney after testing positive for the stimulant pseudoephedrine, led Romania to a score of 146.646 points, edging the U.S. team (145.147).

In the individual standings, Svetlana Khorkina of Russia had 37.224 points, .288 ahead of over Raducan. U.S. champion Tasha Schwikert is in seventh.

Passings

Jaakko Tuominen, captain of the Finnish track team at the 1964 and ’68 Olympics, died of a heart attack in Astoria, Ore. He was 57.