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 paper plant where he worked in Baton Rouge, La. 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.

Steve Church, another company spokesman, said Milburn’s body was found submerged in the solution.

“We don’t know any more at this point,” he said Wednesday afternoon. “We are cooperating with authorities.”

Milburn, a native of Opelousas and a track 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

A faultless performance against big-serving Greg Rusedski allowed Pete Sampras to stay on course for a fourth title at the ATP Tour World Championship in Hanover, Germany.

World No.1 Sampras, upset Monday by Spaniard Carlos Moya, was back at his best for a 6-4, 7-5 victory over the U.S. Open runner-up.

In a match featuring two newcomers to the season-ending tournament, Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat Jonas Bjorkman, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).

Patrick Rafter, the No. 3 in the world, needed only 56 minutes to beat Moya, 6-4, 6-2.

Fourth-seed Monica Seles advanced to the third round of the Advanta Championships in Villanova, Pa., when opponent Brenda Schultz McCarthy was forced to withdraw midway through the first set of their match with an Achilles’ tendon injury. Seles led 4-3 and 30-40 on Schultz-McCarthy’s serve.

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 Star-Ledger of Newark 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, N.M., airport after he appealed to the state’s highest court to dismiss the case.

Unser was stopped by a police officer in May 1994 for allegedly speeding in the departure area outside the airport. He said the officer dented his truck with a nightstick and cursed him when he moved the vehicle to curbside. Unser also said the officer shoved him, and then he shoved her back.

Unser was arrested and taken to jail. But his attorney said police and prosecutors failed to follow court rules. Police never told Unser why he was being arrested, for example.

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, who pleaded innocent Oct. 14, 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 on 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. . . . Ukrainian soccer authorities suspended Serhiy Nahornyak until the year 2000 after the national team player became the first to test positive for a banned substance in World Cup qualifying play.

Miscellany

The NBA’s new $2.64 billion, four-year television deal with NBC and Turner Sports has a built-in financial safety net for team owners, who will receive the first installment even if they decide to re-open the collective bargaining agreement and impose a lockout next summer. Players union director Billy Hunter said the owners could be building a war chest to prepare for a work stoppage. . . . Chatchai Sasakul of Thailand won a unanimous decision over Russian Yuri Arbachakov and captured the WBC flyweight title in Sapporo, Japan.