Seahawks Have No Room for Warren

Chris Warren, a three-time Pro Bowl player and Seattle’s all-time rushing leader, was released Friday because he couldn’t fit economically on the same team with Ricky Watters.

The Seahawks tried to trade Warren after signing Watters as a free agent last week, but they couldn’t make a deal.

Randy Mueller, the Seahawks’ vice president of football operations, said Warren, 30, requested his release and the team granted it.

In eight seasons, Warren rushed for 6,706 yards, breaking Curt Warner’s team record of 6,705 on last season’s final play.

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The Arizona Cardinals re-signed wide receiver Frank Sanders to a five-year contract. . . . Hugh Douglas, the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year in 1995, was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles by the New York Jets for second- and fifth-round draft choices. . . . The Atlanta Falcons re-signed unrestricted free-agent special teams player Gary Downs to a two-year contract. . . . The Pittsburgh Steelers signed free-agent offensive lineman Roger Duffy, who played for the New York Jets last season. Contract terms were not disclosed.

Auto Racing

A Swift-Ford led the way in practice for the season-opening Grand Prix of Miami, with Christian Fittipaldi out front at Homestead, Fla.

The young Brazilian, nearly recovered from injuries that interrupted his 1997 season, turned a fast lap of 212.164 mph on the revamped 1 1/2-mile oval at Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex.

Fittipaldi broke his right leg and left foot in a crash in Australia. He then missed seven races, coming back to run the last eight events and wind up 15th in the driver standings.

“I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself,” he said. “It’s definitely a very important year for me, given the fact that I lost half of the season last year. So I’m very motivated. We ran a lot during the winter and, hopefully, the payoff is what we’re seeing today and perhaps in the race on Sunday.

Greg Moore, who broke through for his first two CART victories last season, was right behind Fittipaldi at 211.814 in a Reynard-Mercedes.

Gary Scelzi, Cruz Pedregon and Jeg Coughlin led qualifying for the NHRA’s Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

Scelzi covered the Gainesville Raceway quarter-mile in a track-record time of 4.567 seconds at 311.52 mph to pace top fuel qualifying.

Pedregon drove a Pontiac Firebird to an NHRA funny car elapsed-time record of 4.873 seconds at 311.41 mph. Coughlin ran a career-best 6.894 seconds at 200.04 mph, becoming the second man to pass 200 mph. Warren Johnson, the first to crack 200, holds the record of 201.11 mph.

Winter Sports

Dutchman Ids Postma skated two personal bests to win the 500- and 5,000-meter races in the World All-Round Speedskating Championships at Heerenveen, Netherlands.

He won the 500 sprint in 36.48 seconds, then beat Belgium’s Bart Veldkamp in an exciting 5,000 meters in 6 minutes 33.09 seconds.

American KC Boutiette was second in the 500 in 36.90 and Canadian Jason Parker third in 37.14.

American women were 1-2 in the women’s 500 meters with Chris Witty, skating her first all-round championships in five years, winning in 39.45 ahead of Becky Sundstroem in 39.97.

Olympic champion Nikki Stone of Westborough, Mass., added a World Cup title to her collection, winning the freestyle aerials championship by finishing second in the last meet of the season at Altenmarkt, Austria.

Olympic aerials gold medalist Eric Bergoust of Missoula, Mont., won the last men’s aerials event.

Todd Lodwick of Steamboat Springs, Colo., won a Nordic combined 7.5-kilometer sprint in the prestigious Holmenkollen Ski Festival after an exciting photo finish at Oslo, Norway.

Lodwick, 21, wasn’t sure of his third career victory until 15 minutes after the cross-country competition. He placed fourth in the ski jump competition with a 117.5-meter jump.

Miscellany

Roberto Garcia of Oxnard improved to 30-0 and won the vacant International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight title with a unanimous decision over Harold Warren at Miami.

In another bout, 1996 Olympian Fernando Vargas of Oxnard stopped Dan Connolly of Pittsburgh 40 seconds into the second round.

Peter Holmberg of the Virgin Islands (13-2) won all three of his races in sailing’s 34th Congressional Cup at Long Beach and leads Scott Dickson of Long Beach and Luc Pillot of France (both 11-4) by two wins with three races remaining today.

David Prinosil of Germany moved into the semifinals of the Copenhagen Open tennis tournament at Denmark by beating French qualifier Olivier Delaitre, 6-3, 6-3.

Prinosil will play fourth-seeded Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands, who defeated sixth-seeded Brett Steven of New Zealand, 6-3, 6-3.

Arkansas freshman Kenny Evans, the nation’s leading scholastic high jumper last year, cleared 7 feet 6 inches to give the Razorbacks an unexpected boost toward their 14th title in 15 years at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at Indianapolis.

Meet records in both weight-throwing events were broken in the Division II meet, with Dan Bourque of Southern Connecticut State winning the men’s 35-pound title with a heave of 66-6 3/4, and Becky Ball of Ashland capturing her third consecutive women’s 20-pound championship at 62-3.

Running back Dave Meggett of the New England Patriots and defensive lineman Steve Brannon had their sexual assault cases at Toronto put off until May 4.

Meggett and Brannon were arrested and charged with sexual assault last month after a 33-year-old woman complained to police that she was assaulted at Toronto’s Royal York hotel.