Skiing Roundup : Walliser’s Fastest as Swiss Win

Maria Walliser clocked the fastest time on both runs Sunday to lead a Swiss sweep of the top four places in a giant slalom race at Bischofswiesen, West Germany.

Walliser, 24, finished more than two seconds ahead of Vreni Schneider.

Walliser had a combined time of 2 minutes 19.24 seconds, and the victory helped her retain the top spot in the overall World Cup standings with 229 points. Her teammates Schneider, with 201 points, Brigitte Oertli with 170, and Erika Hess with 128 hold the next three places in the standings.

The top American skier was Tamara McKinney, who finished 20th in a time of 2:23.81. She dropped from fifth to sixth in the overall World Cup standings with 118 points.

Two days of training, followed by two days of rest, proved the right formula to bring Joel Gaspoz of Switzerland the first World Cup slalom victory of his career.

Gaspoz, ranked No. 39 in the world in slalom by the International Ski Federation before the start of the season, attacked on an icy course at Wengen, Switzerland, to edge runner-up Dietmar Koehlbichler of Austria by more than half a second.

Gaspoz clocked an aggregate time of 1:36.86 to 1:37.40 for Koehlbichler.

Yugoslavia’s Bojan Krizaj placed third in 1:37.44 on a slick and icy Maennlichen-Jungfrau run which 60% of the 92 starters failed to complete.

“I trained two days of slalom this week, then I went home to Morgins for a rest,” Gaspoz said. “I did nothing, I just took a break. It was exactly what I needed.”

At Steinkjer, Norway, Oddvar Braa won his 16th national championship title in men’s Nordic skiing by winning the 30-kilometer race at the Norwegian championships.

Braa, a 35-year-old veteran who is not a member of Norway’s national team this season, won the freestyle race in 1:19:29.

Strong winds and a steady snowfall prompted officials to cancel the second day of aerial events at the World Cup freestyle championships at Lake Placid, N.Y.

The day off gave competition director Jeff Chumas a chance to announce that, beginning this summer, America’s freestyle skiers will have a fully equipped facility at which to train during warm weather.

The center, which it is estimated will cost about $500,000, will be built at the Olympic ski jumping facility at Lake Placid.