Hill Overtakes Villeneuve in Australian GP

Damon Hill overtook his rookie Williams-Renault teammate Jacques Villeneuve with five laps remaining Sunday and won his second consecutive Australian Grand Prix.

Pole-sitter Villeneuve had been aiming to become the first driver in 35 years to win his world championship debut. He won the Indy car title last year.

The 24-year-old Canadian led for all but two laps of the race until the Briton overhauled him on the 54th of the 58 laps of the new 3.274-mile Albert Park track at Melbourne.

British driver Martin Brundle walked away unscathed from a spectacular high-speed accident that forced officials to halt the race before the first lap had been completed.

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Rookie Johnny Benson, who needed only four races to win the first pole of his NASCAR Winston Cup career, lost it in a split second Saturday when he crashed his Pontiac Grand Prix in the final practice session for the Winston Cup Purolator 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Benson will drive a backup car today and will have to start at the end of the 41-car field. Mark Martin will start first in a Ford. . . . Terry Labonte beat former Grand National champion David Green to the finish line by 2.2 seconds to win the Busch Light 300 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Labonte won $28,800 and averaged 139.656 mph in a Chevrolet.

Golf

After two days of playing like a PGA Tour veteran, Tim Herron showed rookie nerves in the Honda Classic at Coral Springs, Fla. Then he birdied two of the final three holes to retain a three-shot lead going into today’s final round.

Herron shot an even-par 72 for a three-day total of 202, 14 under par, to lead New Zealand’s Michael Campbell into the final 18 holes.

Campbell shot a 68 to reach 11 under on the TPC at Eagle Trace. Mark O’Meara and Mark McCumber are at 10 under.

Tennis

Goran Ivanisevic defeated Guillaume Raoux, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinals of the ABN AMRO indoor tournament at Rotterdam and moved into the title match against Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 winner over Tim Henman in the other semifinal.

Thomas Muster of Austria defeated Francisco Clavet of Spain, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1, to reach the final of the Mexican Open at Mexico City and can regain the No. 1 ranking in the world by defeating Czech Jiri Novak in today’s final.

Sixth-seeded Marcelo Rios of Chile advanced to his first ATP Tour hardcourt tournament final with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Australia’s Sandon Stolle at the Franklin Templeton Tennis Classic in Scottsdale, Ariz. Rios will play top-seeded Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, who defeated Spain’s Alberto Berasategui, 6-4, 6-0.

Track and Field

Arkansas’ streak of 12 consecutive men’s titles at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, the longest in Division I history, was ended when George Mason’s internationally laden team rode victories by Greg Haughton in the 400 and Julius Achon in the mile to win for the first time.

The Patriots compiled 39 points at Indianapolis. Nebraska was second with 31 1/2 points, and then came the Razorbacks at 29.

Louisiana State won its fourth consecutive women’s title and seventh in 10 years. UCLA’s Valeyta Althouse won the shotput at 57 feet 11 inches.

In the Division II championships, Abilene Christian swept the men’s and women’s titles.

Meet records were set by Jonathan Jordan of Cal State Los Angeles in the men’s triple jump (52 feet 10 3/4 inches) and Tambi Wenj of Cal State L.A. in the men’s shotput (60-11 1/2).

Winter Sports

Urs Kaelin of Switzerland, two weeks after losing to Alberto Tomba in the World Championships, got a measure of revenge at Hafjell, Norway, by winning the final giant slalom of the World Cup season. Tomba managed only fourth place in his first showing since winning gold medals in the giant slalom and slalom at Sierra Nevada, Spain.

Earlier, overall World Cup champion Katja Seizinger won the women’s race, and her German teammate and roommate Martina Ertl won the giant slalom season title by finishing second.

Bjorn Daehlie of Norway clinched the World Cup cross-country skiing title by finishing second, 5.2 seconds behind Vladimir Smirnov’s 22-minute time, in the 10-kilometer race at Falun, Sweden.

Andreas Goldberger of Austria won a World Cup ski-jumping event with a record-setting jump of 204 meters and a total of 385.8 points at Harrachov, Czech Republic.

Musher Jeff King of Denali Park, Alaska, has overtaken Martin Buser for the lead in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, entering Nulato a minute ahead of Buser, the 1992 and 1994 champion.

Boxing

Giovanni Parisi took the World Boxing Organization’s super-lightweight crown in Milan, Italy, with an eighth-round knockout of defending champion Sammy Fuentes of Puerto Rico. . . . Ireland’s Steve Collins retained his WBO super-middleweight title, stopping challenger Neville Brown of Britain in the 11th round of a bout in Millstreet, Ireland. . . . Indiana has joined at least 10 other states in requiring professional fighters to be tested for the virus that causes AIDS before they are allowed to compete.

Names in the News

Bud Tenerani, 67, of Canyon Country, a former publicist for NBC Sports, died Friday night at the Norris Cancer Center after a long bout with leukemia.