Skiing Roundup : 30,000 See Figini Win in Slalom
Olympic and world downhill champion Michela Figini of Switzerland won a parallel slalom Sunday night at Munich, West Germany, in front of probably the largest crowd ever to watch a women’s ski race.
Figini defeated Marina Kiehl of Munich in the final in front of 30,000 shivering spectators who stood--some on a frozen lake--through intermittent snow and sleet.
“I’m especially pleased by the crowd,” Figini said. “It just shows that those who say women’s racing isn’t exciting don’t know what they’re talking about. We managed to outdraw the men quite nicely.”
A men’s parallel slalom race at Vienna last Monday drew 8,000.
The 16-strong field was drawn from the World Cup women ranked at the top after a slalom at Badgastein, Austria, on Sunday. The women were driven to Munich, where the competition began six hours after the Badgastein race ended.
Figini beat Canadian Liisa Savijarvi, teammates Brigitte Oertli and Heidi Zeller and finally Kiehl to secure her victory at Munich, valid for Nations’ Cup points.
In the earlier Badgastein slalom, Anni Kronbichler of Austria easily won the first heat and then hung back in the second run to win the competition.
The 23-year-old Austrian was 1.59 seconds ahead going into the second heat and clocked a combined time of 1 minute 36.53 seconds. She finished 1.16 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Erika Hess of Switzerland.
Fellow-Swiss Vreni Schneider was third, covering the runs of 56 gates and 60 gates in 1:38.45.
Tamara McKinney of Squaw Valley, Calif, hindered by a knee injury she suffered at the 1984 Winter Olympics, looked sharp and finished eighth.
In overall World Cup standings, Hess overtook teammate Maria Walliser for the lead. Hess has 152 points, while Walliser, after a 14th-place finish, has 145.
In slalom standings for the season, Hess leads with 85 points, 35 points ahead of her nearest competitor.
At Berchtesgaden, West Germany, Johann Wallner of Sweden mastered the icy and difficult Kehlstein course in two nearly perfect runs to win a men’s slalom race and score his first World Cup ski victory.
The 20-year-old Swede clocked a combined time of 1 minute 43.96 seconds for the two runs to edge veteran Bojan Krizaj of Yugoslavia, who was second in 1:44.05, just nine-hundredths of a second behind. Daniel Mougel of France was third in 1:44.76.
Defending World Cup overall champion Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg finished 10th and picked up six World Cup points to extend his overall lead. Girardelli hasn’t won a race this season.
Girardelli now has 109 points, 19 more than Peter Mueller of Switzerland and Peter Wirnsberger of Austria, two downhill specialists who share the second spot in overall standings with 90 points each.
Kim Reichhelm of Boulder, Colo., posted her first win of the Women’s Pro Ski Racing Tour by defeating Leslie Baker of Burlington, Vt., in a slalom at Okemo Mountain near Ludlow, Vt.
Edvin Halsnes of Norway defeated his brother, Jarle, in the giant slalom finals of the $25,000 New Hampshire Cup at Loon Mountain near Lincoln, N.H. Peter Dodge of Stowe, Vt., and Mark Tache of Aspen, Colo., finished third and fourth in what was the second stop on this year’s Peugeot Grand Prix tour.