Olympian Milburn Found Dead

Rod Milburn, who won a gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles at the 1972 Munich Olympics, was found dead late Tuesday in a rail car full of bleach solution at the Louisiana paper plant where he worked. He was 47.

There was no indication of how Milburn, 47, wound up in the car at the Georgia Pacific plant near Baton Rouge. Authorities said they did not suspect foul play.

Preliminary autopsy results showed that Milburn died after inhaling the solution and from massive burns to his body, the parish coroner said.

Milburn had been assigned to unload a rail car containing liquid sodium chlorate, a chemical used in the bleaching process of paper making, said Patty Prats-Swanson, a spokeswoman for Georgia Pacific.

He was found about 10:45 p.m. Tuesday in the rail car by a supervisor who went looking for him when he failed to answer a page, Prats-Swanson said.

Milburn, a star for Southern University in Baton Rouge, won the gold medal in 13.24 seconds, a record that was not broken for five years.

The year before the Olympics at Munich, he went undefeated and won 27 consecutive finals.

Tennis

Pete Sampras, upset Monday by Spaniard Carlos Moya, was back at his best for a 6-4, 7-5 victory over U.S. Open runner-up Greg Rusedski of Britain at the ATP Tour World Championship in Hanover, Germany.

Australia’s Patrick Rafter, ranked third in the world, needed only 56 minutes to beat Moya, 6-4, 6-2, and Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).

Top-ranked Martina Hingis of Switzerland survived an upset bid in beating Belgium’s Sabine Appelmans, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, in the second round of the Advanta Championships at Villanova, Pa.

Fourth-seeded Monica Seles advanced when Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of the Netherlands was forced to withdraw midway through the first set because of an Achilles’ tendon injury.

Basketball

Brian Earl’s layup on a back-door cut was goaltended with 2.7 seconds to play and Princeton beat North Carolina State, 38-36, in the championship game of the inaugural Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at East Rutherford, N.J.

In the third-place game, No. 19 Georgia defeated No. 22 Texas, 89-87, behind Ray Harrison’s 22 points.

In ABL games: Tonya Edwards led Columbus with 21 points as the host Quest beat the San Jose Lasers, 96-70, before 2,963. . . . At Seattle, Shalonda Ellis scored 33 points and the Reign defeated the Philadelphia Rage, 86-79, before 2,926.

In a women’s exhibition at Pauley Pavilion, UCLA defeated the Kilsyth Cobras of Australia, 75-63. Sophomore forward Marie Philman had 21 points to lead four Bruins in double figures.

Jurisprudence

Bobby Czyz, a heavyweight boxer who fought champion Evander Holyfield last year, was arrested and charged with drunken driving after a minor traffic accident in Old Bridge, N.J. Czyz, 35, of Raritan, N.J., also was charged with refusing to take a Breathalyzer test and improper use of dealer license plates after the Nov. 3 accident, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.

Former auto racing champion Bobby Unser will have to wait weeks or months to find out if he’ll face prosecution on charges stemming from a 1994 traffic stop at the Albuquerque airport after he appealed to the state’s highest court to dismiss the case.

Unser was arrested and taken to jail in the incident. But his attorney said police and prosecutors failed to follow proper procedure.

ESPN broadcaster Gary Miller requested a jury trial in Cleveland on charges of public indecency, aggravated disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after he allegedly urinated onto off-duty police officers from a building’s second-story window. Miller, 41, was given a Dec. 11 trial date.

Ohio State freshman forward Jon Sanderson, accused of scuffling with a campus policeman during a party at the University of Dayton in August, pleaded guilty to assault. Sanderson, 19, will be sentenced Dec. 10.

Soccer

Saudi Arabia became the 24th nation to qualify for the World Cup, beating host Qatar, 1-0, to finish first in Group A of the second round of Asian qualifying.

Jose Vasquez scored in the 58th minute for the Galaxy in a 1-1 exhibition against club team Atlante of Mexico before about 4,000 in Santa Barbara.

Ukrainian authorities suspended Serhiy Nahornyak until 2000 after the national team player became the first to test positive for a banned substance in World Cup qualifying.

Miscellany

Steve Hoskins beat Danny Wiseman, 233-184, in the final match to win the Bayer/Brunswick Touring Players Championship at Pittsburgh, his second Professional Bowlers Assn. title in five weeks. . . . Chatchai Sasakul of Thailand won a unanimous decision over Russian Yuri Arbachakov to capture the World Boxing Council flyweight title in Sapporo, Japan. . . . An all-woman jury awarded $1.28 million in damages to former Oregon State softball coach Vickie Dugan, who contended she was the victim of gender discrimination by the school.