Botha Gets Controversial Win

Frans Botha of South Africa won a controversial split decision over Axel Schulz to win the International Boxing Federation heavyweight title Saturday in Stuttgart, Germany.

German fans flung coins and beer bottles into the ring when the decision was announced. Two of three judges voted for Botha (36-0).

The bout pitted the top two challengers for the IBF crown vacated by George Foreman, whose last fight was a controversial 12-round win against Schulz.

Botha, who lives in Newport Beach, entered the fight undefeated in 35 bouts, but without a victory against any important opponents.

Neither fighter came close to a knockout, but Botha appeared stronger as the two fighters exchanged a flurry of punches in the waning minutes.

Schulz, who has only 10 knockouts in his 25 bouts, didn’t have enough punch to knock out the South African after the seventh, when it became clear he was behind on the judges’ cards.

The win over Schulz (21-3-1) is unlikely to still criticism of the South African, who appeared slow and easy to hit.

On the undercard, Frank Liles retained his World Boxing Assn. super-middleweight title by pounding out a unanimous decision over Brazil’s Mauricio Amaral, and Tom Johnson was knocked down three times, but won a narrow decision over Jose Badillo of Puerto Rico to retain his IBF featherweight title.

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Luis Ramon “Yori Boy” Campas stopped Mexican countryman Javier Altimirano in the eighth round of their scheduled 10-round welterweight main event at the Grand Olympic Auditorium on Friday night. The end came 41 seconds into the round after Altimirano was hurt by a flurry of punches and was not throwing any of his own. Campas, 147, improved to 63-1 with 56 knockouts. Altimirano, 147, is 39-6-3.

College Football

Kevin Hardy of Illinois won the Butkus Award as the top linebacker in college football. Hardy finished his senior season with 105 tackles, including 15 for losses and 11 sacks. He also caused five fumbles and led the Illini with three interceptions. Hardy ranks ninth on Illinois’ all-time list with 326 tackles, 48 behind Dick Butkus, who also attended Illinois and is the award’s namesake.

Marshall (12-2) and Montana (12-2) will meet in the Division I-AA championship game next week after semifinal victories. Marshall shut down previously unbeaten McNeese State, 25-13, at Lake Charles, La. Montana dominated Stephen F. Austin, 70-14, at Montana. . . . North Alabama cruised to an unprecedented third consecutive Division II championship, beating Pittsburg State, 27-7, at Florence, Ala. . . . Wisconsin La Crosse (14-0) preserved its perfect season with a 36-7 victory over Rowan in the NCAA Division III championship at Salem, Va.

Tennis

Todd Martin defeated crowd favorite Boris Becker in the semifinals of the $6-million Grand Slam Cup, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), before 11,000 at Munich, Germany.

“I think it was one of my best matches ever,” Martin said. “I had to play fantastic to beat Becker at home under these conditions.”

Martin will meet Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia in today’s final. Ivanisevic, taking advantage of the fast carpet surface, defeated Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, behind 41 aces in the other semifinal.

Olympics

Olympic athletes who use drugs to enhance their performance are more likely to get caught because of a sophisticated piece of equipment that will be introduced at the Atlanta Games.

The $500,000 machine--called a high resolution mass spectrometer--allows officials to detect lingering traces of drugs from use much earlier than before, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.

“Our desire is to have state-of-the-art stuff for the Olympics and I assume that is what we will get,” said Richard Pound of Canada, a member of the International Olympic Committee’s executive board. “We want to send the message that we expect all accredited labs to be using the most sophisticated equipment possible.”

Winter Sports

Luc Alphand became the first French skier in 27 years to win a World Cup downhill at Val D’Isere, France.

Alphand was timed in two minutes 20.71 seconds for two runs to defeat Austrians Roland Assinger, Hannes Trinkl and Guenther Mader.

American Tommy Moe, the 1994 Olympic champion, failed to qualify for the second run after a 1:11.66 for 52nd in the morning. The top American was Kyle Rasmussen, who was 19th in 2:21.91.

American Olympian Todd Lodwick, who won the opening individual Nordic combined event of the season three days earlier, fell about 50 meters from the finish and a Norwegian team won the two-man sprint relay and took three of the top four places in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

Lodwick had overtaken Halldor Skard of Norway-2 on the final downhill, about 400 meters from the finish and was outsprinting the Norwegian when he went down.

Markus Prock of Austria, the 1994 Olympic silver medalist in luge, made it two in a row by winning the second men’s World Cup event of the season at La Plagne, France.

Canadian Neal Marshall won the 1,500 meters in a World Cup speedskating meet at Oslo, but Dutchman Martin Hersman kept the overall lead with 87 points despite finishing only ninth, ahead of American K.C. Boutiette.

World champion Lu Chen of China performed a flawless free program to win the women’s singles title in the NHK Trophy figure skating competition at Nagoya, Japan.

Eric Bergoust of Missoula, Mont., who sat out much of last season because of back problems, won the opening men’s aerials event of the season on the World Cup freestyle ski tour at Tignes, France. Veronica Brenner of Canada won the women’s competition.

Names in the News

Triple jump world-record holder Jonathan Edwards of Britain and world 100-meter champion Gwen Torrence of the United States were voted track and field’s Athletes of the Year. . . . Team captain Bob Ctvrtlik and middle blocker Bryan Ivie were named co-MVPs of the U.S. men’s national volleyball team, which finished fourth in the 1995 World Cup.