Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!looking!clarinews From: clarinews@clarinet.com (United Press International) Newsgroups: clari.sports.misc Subject: Sports Digest Keywords: misc sports Message-ID: Date: 13 Jan 90 21:59:22 GMT Lines: 59 Approved: clarinews@clarinet.com ACategory: sports Slugword: digest Priority: major Format: briefs ANPA: Wc: 646; Id: s0951; Sel: ns--s; Adate: 1-13-500pes; Ver: sked Codes: ysz.pxx. _B_o_x_i_n_g South Korea's Baek In-chul defended his WBA super middleweight crown with a knockout over Japan's Yoshiaki Tajima. Baek knocked down the challenger halfway through the second round. Tajima refused to give up and the fight lasted until he refused to come out for the eighth. _C_o_l_l_e_g_e_ _B_a_s_k_e_t_b_a_l_l Nevada-Las Vegas junior guard Anderson Hunt did not dress Saturday for the team's game at Temple because of a problem with a school loan. Joyce Aschenbrenner, an assistant athletic director at UNLV, said in a statement that a university audit determined Hunt had a loan that has not yet been fully repaid. In the statement, Hunt, who started UNLV's first 12 games this season and averaged 15.8 points, said he was surprised by the problem. ``I was shocked because this loan is something that I understood had been repaid since money had been deducted from my scholarship checks,'' Hunt said. ``I'm confident that school records will indicate that and that this matter will be cleared up soon.'' _S_k_i_i_n_g French ski giant Rossignol has lost its American racing director James Major, little more than six months after he took the helm last June. Major, the key link between Rossignol's stable of top racers and the company, chose to quit in the middle of the World Cup season with Rossignol riding high. Much of the credit for that is due to Major's work over the summer, ensuring that top racers like Alberto Tomba and Vreni Schneider were happy with their equipment, rewriting competitor contracts and signing new talent. ``I left because of too much politics inside the company,'' the French-educated Major said. ``The job also involved too much travel and kept me away from my family.'' ... U.S. ski team racer Edith Thys suffered an apparent concussion in a fall Saturday during a World Cup women's downhill in Haus, Austria. Thys, 23, Squaw Valley, Calif., fell just after the midway point where she was clocked 14th fastest. Team doctor Bob Stanton took Thys, the No. 2 downhill racer on the U.S. women's squad, to a hospital for X-rays. Maria Walliser of Switzerland won the women's downhill in 1 minute, 37.97 seconds. _S_l_e_d_ _D_o_g_ _R_a_c_i_n_g Three-time Alaska Iditarod winner Susan Butcher won the 1990 John Beargrease sled dog marathon in record time Saturday, finishing the grueling 475-mile race in 87 hours, 15 minutes and 38 seconds and shaving approximately 10 hours off last year's record time. The Minnesota event is named after John Beargrease, who delivered mail by dog sled along Lake Superior's North Shore from 1887 to 1900. _S_o_c_c_e_r Aston Villa moved into a tie with Liverpool for first place in the English League. Villa defeated Charlton 2-0 to stretch its unbeaten streak to seven matches. Derek Mountfield scored in the fourth minute, and an own goal by defender Joe McLaughlin in the 57th minute sealed Villa's fifth road victory.Liverpool battled to a 2-2 draw at home with Luton, playing its first game under new coach Jim Ryan. _T_r_a_c_k Abdi Bile of Somalia, the 1987 world champion at 1,500 meters, will run the 1,000 meters Feb. 2 at the Panasonic Millrose Games in New York. Sammy Koskei, five-time meet champion in the event, and Ocky Clark will be Bile's chief competitors. Bile, heavily favored to win the 1988 Olympic 1,500 until sustaining a stress fracture, returned last year to clock outdoor-best times in the 1,000 and 1,500 meters and the mile. He also won the 1,500 World Cup title in Barcelona, Spain.