Briefly

Olympic bobsledding champion Jill Bakken and Todd Hays, who won the four-man silver at the Salt Lake City Games, will lead the U.S. Bobsled team into the World Cup season.

Bakken of Kirkland, Wash., will be joined by Erin Pac of Farmington, Conn.; Amanda Moreley of Auburn, Wash.; Bethany Hart of North Grafton, Mass., and Ingrid Marcum of Elmhurst, Ill.

Hays of Del Rio, Texas, will be teamed with Bill Schuffenhauer of Salt Lake City, and Garrett Hines and Randy Jones, both of Atlanta.

Also selected to the team were Mike Kohn of Chantilly, Va., who helped driver Brian Shimer to the four-man bronze medal in 2002, and Steve Mesler of Buffalo, N.Y.

The rest of the men’s team will consist of Steve Holcomb of Park City, Utah; Ivan Radcliff of Houston; Pavle Jovanovic of Toms River, N.J.; Brock Kreitzburg of Akron, Ohio; Lorenzo Smith III of Kankakee, Ill.; Rocky Lanz of Gainesville, Ga.; Jason Ross of Napoleon, Mich.; Alex Sprague of Indianapolis; and Curt Tomasevicz of Shelby, Neb.

Jean (Racine) Prahm of Waterford, Mich., and Vonetta Flowers of Birmingham, Ala., also return to the team along with Shauna Rohbock of Orem, Utah, and Valerie Fleming of Foster City, Calif.

Bakken teamed with Flowers for the gold in Salt Lake City. Flowers and Prahm will be teamed this season.

The first World Cup race is in Calgary, Alberta, beginning with the two-man competition Nov. 11. A week later, the circuit stops at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Marathon

Tariq looks to bring plight to light

When an earthquake ripped through Pakistan, Sarmad Tariq tried to persuade his wife to get out of their apartment building and leave him behind. He didn’t want his paralysis to endanger her life.

Tariq survived the disaster, as did his wife, but not without some soul-shaking questions: How many disabled Pakistanis couldn’t reach safety in time? How many newly disabled Pakistanis are there now because of the tragedy?

On Nov. 6, Tariq hopes to bring the world’s attention to the plight of his country’s disabled by participating in the New York City Marathon. The 29-year-old man, a quadriplegic with limited movement in his arms, already planned to race for the same reason before the quake.

Now, the endeavor means much more.

“I’m here primarily to make a statement,” said Tariq, paralyzed in a diving accident at age 15. “Our developed cities are not wheelchair friendly. Now, after all this, the disability rate is going to increase so much.”

The quake Oct. 8 killed 80,000 people, mostly in Pakistan. Tens of thousands have been injured and hundreds of thousands left homeless. The quake left Tariq’s sixth-floor apartment in Islamabad uninhabitable; he and his wife, Zehra, have since found a new ground-level home.

Round-faced, stubbled and wearing a Bono-inspired “One” bracelet (“I would die for him,” Tariq says), Tariq sheepishly admits he hasn’t spent much time training for the wheelchair division of the marathon. He has no illusions about how he’ll do; he just wants to finish.

Tariq finished a marathon in Lahore, Pakistan, this year in 7 1/2 hours. The New York race will be his second marathon and most likely his last, he said. The exertion is simply too much.

After the marathon, he’ll try to find other ways to promote his campaign for the disabled.

“I have to come up with things that keep me in a way engaged,” he said.

Golf

Klein new coach of UCF

Completing a coaching search that began in August, Central Florida landed some instant star power by hiring former LPGA standout Emilee Klein, who surprised her peers when she retired from a lucrative LPGA career a month ago after 11 years on the tour.

“I didn’t even have a real resume,” Klein laughed. “I had to have somebody help me put one together.”

Now it will read as follows: Three LPGA victories, $3 million in career earnings, head women’s golf coach at UCF.

Klein, a former standout at Arizona State, grew up in a powerhouse program, and it will require plenty of work before UCF lands in the same college pantheon. In Golfweek magazine’s national rankings, UCF is No. 117.

Miscellany

Henin-Hardenne out of LA tourney

Justine Henin-Hardenne will miss next week’s season-ending WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles due to a hamstring injury.

Henin-Hardenne told Belgian newspaper Le Soir she needed to recuperate from the injury, suffered after winning her fourth Grand Slam at the French Open in June.

“Tony Petitti will assist CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus with day-to-day sports operations as executive vice president.

Petitti, the top deputy to McManus the past three years, will begin the new position Nov. 7. He will focus on programming, talent acquisition and contracts in addition to his duties as executive producer.

“Roman Ruler, the winner of the Dwyer and Haskell Invitational who missed the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last weekend because of a bruised right front heel, was retired to stud.

“Jockey Gary Bain and apprentice rider Alexis Freites were hospitalized after separate spills at Calder Race Course in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Both were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, where Bain was listed in good condition while Freites was in serious condition.