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* FOOTBALL: MILAN: Striker Christian Vieri has extended his contract with Serie A club Internazionale through 2006, defying his reputation for frequent club changes. Vieri, the Milan team's leading scorer and key player in the current campaign, negotiated the contract extension this week, club President Massimo Moratti told Milan's sports daily Gazzetta Dello Sport. ``I'm happy ... we negotiated it in five minutes,'' Moratti told the daily. The 29-year-old striker, who will lead Italy's offence at the World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea, joined Inter in 1999 after changing teams yearly since 1992. Vieri's goals, 18 so far this season, have helped Inter take the lead in the Serie A standings. In the interview with the Milan daily, published on Friday (March 8), Moratti also denied any disagreement between Inter and long-injured Brazilian superstar Ronaldo. ``A Ronaldo controversy does not exist ... Ronaldo will stay with us for five other seasons,'' Moratti said.

* GOLF: CORAL SPRINGS, USA: PGA tour journeyman John Riegger shot a course record 63 for a two-shot lead over Paul Casey through a suspended second round of the $3.5m Honda Classic. Casey is at 10-under-par through 14 holes of his second round, while Joey Sindelar was in the clubhouse at nine-under-par 135 on the par-72 TPC at Heron Bay after Friday's (March 8) game. The top trio are followed by 1994 Byron Nelson classic winner Neil Lancaster, Mike Sposa and 1999 John Deere classic winner J.L. Lewis who are tied for fourth at eight-under 136.

* HOCKEY: KUALA LUMPUR: Pakistan team manager Khalid Khokhar says field hockey needs to look at the prospects of introducing a third umpire for the sport to progress. ``The game has become extremely fast paced and a third arbitrator is necessary to reduce the number of errors currently affecting the game,'' Khokhar said on Saturday (March 9), proposing that the International Hockey Federation appoint a third official to offset any errors committed by the two umpires. Khokhar, who has been very vocal about the poor standard of umpiring in the current World Cup, said the present system needed to be changed for the game's benefit. Pakistan on Friday defeated Argentina 5-3 in the playoff to decide the fifth spot, but Khokhar said he was ``not too happy with the umpiring decisions.''

* TENNIS: INDIAN WELLS, USA: Doubles veteran Martina Navratilova would love nothing better than to sink her teeth into officials at the $5.1 Masters Series after her beloved tiny dog was banned. ``We have rooms for computers, we have rooms for players, rooms for kids - but you can't have room for dogs?'' complained the tennis legend, competing at Indian Wells, California, in doubles at age 45. Navratilova was particularly incensed when security prevented her from bringing her 4-kg Jack Russell Terrier Sophie onto the grounds of the tennis garden. One guard even called her animal ``a pollutant''. Navratilova thinks of Sophie as ``part of the family. It's important not only to feed the body but also feed the soul. The dogs do that for me. If I couldn't take my dog to a tournament, I would go somewhere else.'' WTA tour rules stipulate that dogs need to either be on a lead or in a holdall. But the Indian Wells event flatly bans all animals.

* The Indian Wells Masters will commemorate the sixth month anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington on Monday by paying tribute to police, firefighters and the military. The tournament, which has attracted most of the world's top ranked men's and women's tennis players, will stage its salute to heroes just prior to the start of the evening session. Organisers said the ceremony will include a Marine Corps colour guard and dignitaries. Military personnel, police and firefighters will be given free admission to the evening matches.

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