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Manning watch moves to desert, but no sign of QB

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TEMPE, Ariz. — The Peyton Manning stakeout moved to Arizona on Saturday, even though there was no sign of the superstar in the desert.

Manning spent nearly six hours at the Denver Broncos’ facility on Friday, and speculation was high that the Cardinals would be his next stop.

The Cardinals’ facility was a bee hive of activity as the setting for Kurt Warner’s annual “Ultimate Football Experience,” a fundraiser for his First Things First foundation that features current and past football stars. Among them was Cardinals star wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who said he knew nothing of any contact the team may have made with Manning.

“I haven’t heard anything,” he said. “I’d like to feel like if he was going to be here I would probably hear something from somebody.”

The presence of Fitzgerald, one of the best receivers in the game, is considered a major reason Manning would consider the Cardinals, who finished last season 7-2 after a 1-6 start to wind up 8-8.

The team has already invested millions in quarterback Kevin Kolb and is scheduled to pay him $7 million if he is on the roster Thursday. The Cardinals, though, had more success with second-year quarterback John Skelton starting than with Kolb, who missed much of the season with turf toe and a concussion.

Fitzgerald, the Cardinals’ career leading receiver, said he understood why Arizona would be interested in Manning.

“He’s a four-time MVP. He’s a Super Bowl champion,” he said. “He’s arguably the best quarterback to ever play football. He’s a free agent. If he’s healthy, I know he’s somebody that can help any team that he goes to. I understand the interest. It makes sense.”

Stenhouse earns
1st win of 2012
at Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — Defending Nationwide champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led the final 54 laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday for his first victory of the season.

Stenhouse had a strong car all day and dominated the end of the 200-mile race, pulling away from Mark Martin on a pair restarts on the 1.5-mile tri-oval in the desert.

Martin, who had won four of his previous six Nationwide starts at Las Vegas, finished second in his first Nationwide race for Joe Gibbs Racing. Polesitter Elliott Sadler rallied to finish third after a lengthy mid-race pit stop to fix a vibration.

Danica Patrick was 12th in the first race at LVMS since IndyCar star Dan Wheldon was killed in a fiery crash last fall.

Stenhouse was the top Nationwide rookie in 2010 and earned the season championship last year after winning two races and posting 26 top-10 finishes. He opened this season by finishing 19th at Daytona after being caught up in a late wreck and entered Saturday’s race fifth in points after taking third at Phoenix last week.

Stenhouse started sixth at Las Vegas and stayed near the front, taking the lead with 54 laps left. He pulled away from Martin out of two cautions down the stretch and had a big cushion when he crossed the checkers.

Martin was in the No. 18 Toyota that Kyle Busch drove in 38 of his series-record 51 wins before moving on to start his own team. The 53-year-old Martin was solid in the middle of the race, leading 44 laps and stayed near the front, but didn’t have enough to keep up with Stenhouse.

Canada’s Zoricic dies after skicross crash

GENEVA — Canada and the action-sports world endured their second tragedy in two months Saturday with the death of skicross racer Nik Zoricic, who suffered head injuries after crashing into the nets on the side of the course near the final jump of a race in Switzerland.

Ski authorities called it a “freak accident,” much the same way they labeled the fatal accident of Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke, who crashed during halfpipe training two months to the day before Zoricic’s accident.

Both Burke and Zoricic were 29.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge called Zoricic’s death “a very sad day for the whole Olympic Movement.”

“He was a young, gifted athlete who tragically died doing the sport he loved,” Rogge said in a statement.

Skicross debuted at the Olympics in 2010, joining its sister sport of snowboardcross in the latest attempt by the IOC to bring a more exciting, youthful feel to the games. It’s a dangerous discipline — known as “NASCAR on skis” — during which four racers jostle down a course filled with banks, rolls and ridges.

Despite the inherent danger, Max Gartner, president of Alpine Canada, said he was satisfied with the safety precautions in place for the race in Grindelwald, Switzerland.

Read, Puma come
in 2nd in 4th leg
of Volvo race

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — American skipper Ken Read produced a tactical masterstroke to leave the Volvo Ocean Race wide open again Sunday by taking his Puma team past pacesetting Telefonica into second place in the fourth leg.

Read, the oldest captain in the race at 50, left observers scratching their heads midway through the 5,220-nautical mile leg when he headed north in the Pacific toward Japan, apparently in completely the wrong direction for their New Zealand destination.

The experienced campaigner from Newport, R.I., knew what he was doing, picking up vastly superior wind and eventually leading Telefonica home by 50 minutes to claim runner-up spot for the leg between Sanya, China and Auckland.

“My God, I feel good to be in Auckland,” Read said. “From day one of this leg, ever since we sailed into the South China Sea, it’s been tough. I know that’s what we signed up for, but man this is a challenging leg.”

French boat Groupama won the leg late Saturday night despite a major late scare when crew found a leak in the hull that needed a hasty on-board repair 100 miles from the finish in Auckland.

The result leaves Spanish boat Telefonica still in the overall lead with 121 points after winning the first three legs, but Franck Cammas’ Groupama crew now lie only 18 behind with still plenty of time to catch up with each of the five legs remaining carrying 30 points apiece for the winner.

The race is scheduled to finish in Galway, Ireland, on July 8, nine months and more than 39,000 nautical miles after setting out from Alicante, Spain.

Djokovic advances
at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Novak Djokovic opened his bid for a third BNP Paribas Open championship with an easy victory Saturday, dispatching qualifier Andrey Golubev 6-3, 6-2.

The top-ranked Djokovic, a winner over Rafael Nadal last year in the finale at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and also the 2008 champion, is 23-4 on the slow PlexiPave courts that he said favor his game. The Serbian star will face South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in the third round.

Djokovic also beat Golubev, from Kazakhstan, in the second round last year.

In the late match, Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez upset fourth-seeded Andy Murray of Scotland 6-4, 6-2.

The second-seeded Maria Sharapova, the 2006 tournament champion, beat Gisella Dulko of Argentina 6-2, 6-0 minutes after 2011 champion and No. 4 seed Caroline Wozniacki closed the afternoon schedule with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Ekaterina Makarova of Russia.

Americans John Isner and Andy Roddick won their opening matches, too. Isner, the No. 11 seed, posted a routine 7-5, 6-3 victory over Frederico Gil of Portugal. But Roddick needed a long three sets to dispatch Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3.

By wire sources