Winter Sports Roundup : Swiss Take Top Two Places in World Cup Downhill

Daniel Mahrer led a one-two Swiss finish in the men’s World Cup downhill Sunday by mastering a tricky mix of fresh snow and hard surfaces at Leukerbad, Switzerland.

Mahrer scored his second victory of the season with a surge of speed near the bottom of the course, sweeping through an icy curve and a finish slope to a winning time of 2 minutes 17.53 seconds.

Franz Heinzer, his left arm in a cast, took second place, 0.38 of a second behind. Igor Cigolla of Italy finished a surprising third, .09 of a second behind Heinzer.

Defending World Cup champion Pirmin Zurbriggen, the crowd’s favorite, never got a grip on the course and finished 13th. Zurbriggen, second in the overall Cup standings, gained only three points on leader Alberto Tomba of Italy, who does not ski downhills.

Tomba has 206 points, 40 more than Zurbriggen, who still leads the downhill standings with 88 points. Italy’s Michael Mair is second with 74.

East German ski jumper Jens Weissflog scored his first victory in more than a year, edging Finland’s Matti Nykaenen in the a 90-meter World Cup event at Engelberg, Switzerland.

Weissflog, who set the Engelberg hill record of 407 feet in 1984, combined jumps of 375-8 and 378-8 and slightly better style marks than Nykaenen for 215 points. Nykaenen jumped 368-8 on his first try and a meet-best 387 on his second for 214.7 points.

Nykaenen leads the World Cup standings with 220 points. Czechoslovakia’s Pavel Ploc is second with 163 points and Weissflog is third with 111.

Vreni Schneider and Brigitte Oertli combined for two more victories for Switzerland in team competition at Badgastein, Austria.

Schneider had the best time in both heats of a slalom to win easily in 1:19.11. Oertli picked up her second combined victory of the season with a second in Saturday’s downhill and a 12th in the slalom.

The two victories gave Switzerland 13 of the last 17 women’s races, including the last seven in a row.