Crafty Buser Wins Iditarod Race

With the fastest dogs and a bit of guile, Martin Buser won his third Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in a record 10 days 13 hours 2 minutes.

It was his second victory in three years in the 1,100-mile race that started March 5 in Anchorage and ended in Nome shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday.

At the Kaltag checkpoint, on the Yukon River about 250 miles from the finish, Buser said that he wanted to rest and wouldn’t leave until 20 minutes after another of the eight-member front-running pack left.

The others knew Buser was the musher to worry most about and saw his stop as an opportunity to get some rest themselves.

While they dozed, Buser tiptoed out of the checkpoint and started driving for the coast last Friday, staying in front the rest of the way to earn $50,000.

Second was Rick Mackey, in 10:18:18. Third was defending champion Jeff King, more than eight hours behind.

Basketball

Houston Rocket guard Vernon Maxwell showed anything but remorse in a Houston court a day after his third arrest in 20 months. Maxwell was charged with illegally carrying a weapon in his car after being arrested and jailed for several hours Tuesday after a traffic incident near the arena where the Rockets play.

Houston police said they confiscated a .380 semiautomatic pistol from the front seat of his car, and, in court, Maxwell stared at the arresting officer, H.D. Felder, and said: “Are you happy that you got on TV?”

Though prosecutors asked Court at Law Judge Sherman Ross to admonish Maxwell, he took no action, saying he didn’t hear the remark.

Golf

Professional golf is investigating a report of purse-splitting in unofficial events on the Senior PGA Tour. No players were named and no tournaments identified in a statement issued by PGA Commissioner Deane Beman.

Purse-splitting is the prearranged sharing of purse money won by two or more players.

Unofficial events on the Senior PGA Tour include the Senior Skins Game, Senior Slam of Golf, the Chrysler Cup and the DuPont Cup Japan vs. U.S. matches.

Football

The Chicago Bears, who last month signed quarterback Erik Kramer from Detroit, released three-year starter Jim Harbaugh, one season after he signed a four-year, $13-million contract.

Boxing

Frank Bruno (37-4), hoping for a fourth shot at a world heavyweight title, stopped punchless American Jesse Ferguson (20-12) at 2:22 of the first round at Birmingham, England.

Swimming

Rebecca Brown of Australia swam a world record for the women’s 200-meter breaststroke in 2:24.76 at the Australian national championships at Brisbane. It was 0.59 seconds faster than the record set by American Anita Nall in 1992. . . . Franziska van Almsick won the women’s 100-meter freestyle in 54.49 seconds to clinch all three sprint freestyle events in the short course World Cup swimming competition at Malmo, Sweden.

Tennis

The seventh-ranked USC men won the first five singles matches and two of the three doubles matches to defeat eighth-ranked UCLA, 6-1, at USC’s Marks Stadium.

Names in the News

Monica Seles, born in Yugoslavia of Hungarian descent, became a U.S. citizen in Miami. . . . California Lutheran University has named Rich Rider as basketball coach, replacing Mike Dunlap, who resigned to coach in Australia. . . . Herb Dorricott, NCAA president from 1959-61, died in Gunnison, Colo., after a long bout with diabetes. He was 80.