World Cup Skiing Roundup : Walliser Wins Super-Giant Slalom and Overall Title

Maria Walliser of Switzerland won the second of two super-giant slalom races Sunday at Vail, Colo., to repeat as women’s overall World Cup champion.

Walliser was 22nd in the morning race, but rebounded to win the afternoon race. She also won the super-giant slalom season title with 72 points to 57 for Catherine Quittet of France. Marina Kiehl of West Germany, who won the morning race, finished third with 52 points.

In the overall standings, Walliser has an insurmountable 264-257 lead over teammate Vreni Schneider heading into the final race of the season--a giant slalom next weekend at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Even if Schneider wins, she will gain only five points.

Walliser became the first woman to win back-to-back overall titles since Austria’s Annemarie Moser-Proell in 1974 and 1975.

“I’ve never had a time like this where every result means so much,” Walliser said. “It’s very hard to have such good results and still not lose something.”

Walliser breezed through the second course in a time of 1:25.58 to beat Sigrid Wolf (1:26.33) and Anita Wachter (1:26.36), both of Austria.

In the much faster and more straight first race, Kiehl won with a time of 1:29.97 to Wachter’s 1:24.39 and Wolf’s 1:24.87.

Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland won a third World Cup title with a second-place finish in a super-giant race behind Luxembourg’s Marc Girardelli at Mount Allan, Canada.

Girardelli, last year’s overall World Cup champion, finished in 1 minute 37.16 seconds, less than half a second ahead of Zurbriggen’s 1:37.45.

Winning the super-giant title gives Zurbriggen, 24, a chance to become the first to win four World Cup titles in a single season since France’s Jean-Claude Killy in 1967.

“I’m really happy about the third title,” Zurbriggen said. “And next week I will try for the fourth.”

Zurbriggen will try for the super-giant slalom title next weekend at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Zurbriggen has already clinched the overall and downhill titles.

If he wins fours titles, Zurbriggen said his achievement would be even greater than Killy’s because of the more rigorous demands of the modern World Cup circuit.

“I think it is very difficult to compare the two,” Zurbriggen said. “The competition is stronger now. There are more countries involved and more mountains. The races are much faster and there are many more of them.”

Austria’s Leonard Stock placed third in 1:37.77 and Italy’s Robert Erlacher was fourth in 1:37.94. West Germany’s Michael Eder was fifth in 1:38.04. Doug Lewis of Salisbury, Vt., was the top American, placing 24th in 1:40.94.