World Cup Skiing : Hoeflehner Slips Past Zurbriggen in Downhill

Helmut Hoeflehner of Austria, returning from a lengthy slump to display the form of 1985, when he won the downhill title, beat Switzerland’s Pirmin Zurbriggen by .01 seconds in Thursday’s running of the Kandahar downhill at St. Anton.

Hoeflehner, 29, who won 4 downhills on his way to the 1985 title but did not finish better than third in 3 subsequent seasons, won his second race of 1988 with a time of 2 minutes 2.03 seconds.

Zurbriggen earned 20 points for placing second and, thanks to a third-place finish in Wednesday’s slalom, won the Kandahar combined trophy and moved into the lead in the World Cup overall standings.

Zurbriggen has 122 points to 92 for Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg, the fourth-place finisher in the downhill. Girardelli failed to gain any combined points because he fell in the slalom and didn’t complete the race.

“I made some mistakes in the upper part of the course. My second half of the race was apparently much better,” said Hoeflehner, who added St. Anton to his triumph at Val Gardena, Italy, 2 weeks ago.

Hoeflehner leads the downhill standings with 54 points, 14 more than Switzerland’s Peter Mueller.

The race was to have been held Wednesday, but organizers ran the slalom first because the downhill track could not be cleared of the abundant snow.

Soft snow in the bumps on the lower portion of the Kandahar track surprised some of the racers who had battled hard snow in the upper stretches. Hoeflehner had no difficulty even at the trouble spots.

Another Austrian who turned in a surprisingly strong showing was downhill veteran Leonhard Stock, third in 2:03.14 after starting slowly.

Stock, 30, won the downhill gold medal at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics but has yet to win a World Cup race.