Schumacher, Hill Crash, Clinching Title for German

Michael Schumacher won the Formula One championship today when he and archrival Damon Hill were involved in a crash on Lap 36 of the Australian Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old German was leading the race when Hill tried to overtake him on the inside and clipped the side of Schumacher’s car.

Schumacher became the first German to win the Formula One championship and the youngest champion since Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972.

Nigel Mansell won the 81-lap race in a Williams-Renault as his team took the constructors’ championship for third consecutive year. Mansell took the lead on Lap 64 when Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger swung too wide. Mansell finished in 1 hour 47 minutes 51.480 seconds, averaging 105.836 m.p.h.

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Jim Smith of Buena Park won the SCORE Tecate Trophy-Truck division of the Baja 1000 off-road race late Friday night, completing the race in 10 hours 28 minutes 56 seconds.

Smith, driving a Ford pickup, led from start to finish, unofficially averaging 59.796 m.p.h.

“I dream of winning the Baja 1000,” said Smith, a wheel manufacturer who has won only one other off-road race. “But even at that, you just don’t understand what it means when you actually do it.”

Runner-up was Rob MacCachren of Las Vegas, who needed only a top-five finish to win the season championship.

Dave Ashley and Dan Smith of San Bernardino averaged 59.119 m.p.h. through dust and driving rain to win overall division Saturday.

Hockey

NHL players fully expect their latest proposal to be rejected, and on Saturday they said they were losing hope that there will be a season at all.

The two sides have not met jointly since Thursday, when the players made a new offer that included a form of a rookie salary cap.

“After what we offered, I think there is a much greater chance there will not be hockey,” Chicago’s Jeremy Roenick said at an exhibition in Hamilton, Canada.

Tennis

Pete Sampras, who has not lost a set in the tournament, defeated Jared Palmer, 7-5, 6-3, and Magnus Larsson of Sweden defeated Olivier Delaitre of France, 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinals of the European Community Championship at Antwerp, Belgium. . . . Alexander Volkov of Russia defeated Jacco Eltingh of the Netherlands, 6-7 (8-6), 7-6 (8-6), 6-2, and Chuck Adams eliminated Marc Rosset of Switzerland, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup at Moscow. . . . Anke Huber of Germany defeated Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, 6-7 (13-11), 6-1, 6-4, to reach the final of the Virginia Slims of Philadelphia. She will face Mary Pierce, who defeated Natalia Zvereva, 6-3, 6-3.

Soccer

The Los Angeles Salsa tied Veracruz of Mexico, 1-1, at East Los Angeles College in its third in a series of exhibition games against Mexican First Division teams. . . . Goals by Gheorghe Popescu, Gheorghe Hagi and Daniel Podran gave Romania a 3-2 victory Slovakia in Bucharest in a qualifying match for the 1996 European Championship in England. . . . UC San Diego scored two first-half goals to defeat North Carolina Wesleyan, 2-0, and advance to today’s NCAA Division III women’s championship game against Trenton State at UCSD.

Miscellany

The Canadian brewing company that owns the Toronto Blue Jays reportedly is interested in bidding for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and moving the NFL franchise to Toronto. . . . Martin Keino won for the fifth time this season, leading Arizona to the men’s team title in the District 8 cross-country championships at Tucson. Stanford won the women’s title. UCLA’s Mebrahtom Keflezighi, who finished fifth for the men, and Karen Hecox, second for the women, earned berths in the NCAA meet. . . . For the fifth time since 1987-88, Tennessee is No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason women’s college basketball poll, which for the first time is being compiled by votes from the media. USC is No. 25.