West German Captures Upset Gold in Downhill

Hansjoerg Tauscher of West Germany, a non-winner in three seasons on the World Cup circuit, won the gold medal in the weather-delayed men’s downhill today at the World Alpine Ski Championships.

Tauscher, 21, continuing a tradition of unexpected finishes in World Championship competition, was timed in 2 minutes, 10.39 seconds.

Switzerland’s Peter Mueller, the defending world champion in the downhill and a favorite in this race, finished 19-hundredths of a second back at 2:10.58 to take the silver medal, and Swiss teammate Karl Alpiger won the bronze in 2:10.67.

Swiss skiers claimed the next two places as well, with Daniel Mahrer finishing fourth in 2:10.91 and William Besse fifth in 2:10.94.

Two other favorites, Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg and Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland, finished out of the top 10.

Tauscher’s best previous finish in a World Cup race was fifth in a downhill at Laax, Switzerland, on Jan. 6.

No one expected Tauscher’s gold-medal breakthrough today. He had finished no higher than sixth in any of the four training runs.

The race, originally scheduled for Saturday, was postponed when three feet of snow inundated Beaver Creek. Earlier, high winds interrupted training and contributed to a crash by Zurbriggen, leaving him with a bruised upper back and bruised ribs.

Crews managed to clear the course of most of the fresh snow, but today’s winning time was about two seconds slower than early training times on a harder, icier surface.

Mahrer, with what was considered a disadvantageous start number (2) because early racers had to plow through more loose snow, posted a quick time that stood up until Tauscher, with bib No. 9, came down.

Tauscher was a full second behind Mahrer at the second intermediate clocking but had narrowed the gap to two-hundredths at the fourth intermediate, then made up the difference on the bottom part, which featured numerous bumps and rolls and some tight turns.

Mueller, running 11th, and Zurbriggen, starting 15th, could not catch him, although Mueller was slightly faster through the fourth intermediate clocking.

Unofficially, Norway’s Atle Skaardal placed sixth in 2:10.99, followed by three Austrians: Helmut Hoeflehner in 2:11.24, Peter Wirnsberger in 2:11.52 and Roman Rupp in 2:11.60.