World Slalom Event in Colo. Won by Norse

Ole Christian Furuseth of Norway broke from a tightly bunched pack after the first run to win the slalom portion of the men’s combined competition by one-hundredth of a second today at the World Alpine Ski Championships.

The combined slalom results will be paired with a downhill on Friday to determine the combined medalists.

Luxembourg’s Marc Girardelli, who placed third in the combined slalom, loomed as the clear-cut favorite for the gold medal because of his downhill prowess.

Furuseth, 22, whose best World Cup result was a second in a giant slalom this season, came from sixth place after the first run to edge Sweden’s Jonas Nilsson.

Fierce Competition

The top seven racers in the first run were separated by a mere nineteen-hundredths of a second, setting up fierce competition in the second heat. Veteran Paul Frommelt of Liechtenstein led the way in the first run at 49.96 seconds.

Furuseth was clocked in 46.77 seconds for the quickest second run over a slightly shorter, 57-gate course. Nilsson, in fifth place, had a 46.82 in the second run.

That left Furuseth with an aggregate time of 1 minute, 36.89 seconds, while Nilsson finished at 1:36.90.

Girardelli finished third in 1:37.65, followed by Tetsuya Okabe of Japan in 1:37.66 and Frommelt in 1:37.83. Switzerland’s Paul Accola was sixth in 1:37.85.

Californian Places 12th

Austria’s Guenther Mader, another expected contender in the combined, was ninth in 1:38.14, and Switzerland’s Pirmin Zurbriggen stood 11th in 1:38.47.

Bob Ormsby of Tahoe City, Calif., was 12th in 1:38.63.

Felix McGrath of Shelburne, Vt., who was 12th in the first heat, missed a gate halfway down the course. Tiger Shaw of Stowe, Vt., straddled a gate and did not finish the first run.

Among other first-run casualties were Austria’s Hubert Strolz, the combined gold medalist at the Calgary Olympics, and West Germany’s Armin Bittner, who shares this season’s World Cup slalom lead with Girardelli. Strolz straddled a gate just 19 seconds into his run, and Bittner missed a gate barely 10 seconds into his run.

Austria’s Bernhard Gstrein, who was seventh and just .19 seconds behind Frommelt entering the second run, straddled a gate about 10 seconds from the finish.

Earlier story, Part III, Page 3.