Swingley Arrives in Nome With Second Iditarod Title

Despite two broken sleds, Doug Swingley won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race for the second time Wednesday, completing the 1,100-mile Anchorage-to-Nome trek in 9 1/2 days.

Swingley, from Lincoln, Mont., is the only non-Alaskan to win the race. As he did in 1995, when he set the course speed record, Swingley relied on a fast, well-trained team as much as strategy decisions such as when to rest and when to push his dogs.

Haggard-looking and unshaven, Swingley led his 11 dogs past a cheering crowd and through the finish chute at 1:31 a.m. Alaska time. He completed the race in 9 days, 14 hours, 31 minutes.

The victory earned him $60,000 and a new pickup to go along with $9,000 in bonus money he won along the way. More than seven hours back was Martin Buser, who also was the runner-up in 1995.

Boxing

A grand jury in New York is investigating whether the judges in the controversial Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis heavyweight title fight received illegal payments, investigative sources said.

The probe ordered by the Manhattan district attorney is the first to examine possible criminal conduct in Saturday night’s bout, which ended in an uproar when the combined scoring of the three judges ruled it a draw despite what most expert observers considered a clear-cut victory by Lewis.

“We have to have legally sufficient evidence in order to impound any funds,” a source close to the investigation said. “We will investigate how the judges were selected and did they receive payments that they failed to disclose.”

The outcome of the fight is already being investigated by three New York State authorities--the State Athletic Commission, the attorney general and a state Senate committee.

Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau ordered the grand jury probe at the request of New York City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, who said he believed that Lewis “was robbed of the championship title.”

Meanwhile, it was reported that more than one million households paid $49.95 each to see the fight, placing it eighth on the all-time pay-per-view buy list.

In Atlanta, Holyfield’s lawyer said the boxer was weakened by leg cramps and a stomach ache before the fight.

“No one’s saying he would have beat Lennox Lewis to a pulp if he had been feeling better,” attorney Jim Thomas said. “That was the best he could do on that night.”

In light of the controversy over the decision, promoter Bob Arum said he will ask the Nevada State Athletic Commission to institute a new scoring system in time for the May 8 World Boxing Council super-bantamweight title fight between champion Erik Morales and Wayne McCullough at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Arum will ask that judges’ cards be revealed after every round, rather than only after the fight.

Said Arum: “Can you imagine a basketball game where nobody knows the score until it’s over? Then they announce, ‘The winner is UCLA.’ ”

Miscellany

Suspended San Francisco 49er co-owner Eddie DeBartolo’s disciplinary agreement with the NFL has rendered him an outcast with his own team. DeBartolo, who turned over control of the 49ers to his sister 16 months ago after he became embroiled in a Louisiana gambling fraud scandal, can’t be around the team or wield influence in any official capacity under terms of a suspension that was extended to next February. . . . The Buffalo Bills re-signed cornerback Ken Irvin, shoring up their defensive backfield after Ray Jackson was taken by the Cleveland Browns in the expansion draft. . . .

Two days before his team will play for the Division II state basketball championship, Sacramento Grant High Coach Tony Lowden was ordered to stop taking part in team postgame prayers. A letter from the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State warned the school district it could face legal action if Lowden continues to pray with his team, “a gross violation of Constitutional limitations.” . . .

LJ Racing has fired Steve Grissom only four races into the Winston Cup season, replacing him with veteran driver Dick Trickle. Team owner Joe Falk’s decision came only two days after Grissom failed to make the 43-car field at Atlanta. . . . The New York state Legislature honored the late Joe DiMaggio by voting to rename a stretch of the West Side Highway in Manhattan after the New York Yankee great. . . . The $1-billion bid by Rupert Murdoch’s satellite broadcaster BSkyB for the Manchester United soccer team could be blocked by government authorities in England who say it is not in the public interest, according to a published report. . . .

After finishing second and fifth, respectively, at the Pacific 10 Conference championships in late February, sixth-ranked USC and No. 18 UCLA will compete in the NCAA women’s swimming championships today through Saturday at Athens, Ga.