Austrian Skis to 2nd Straight World Cup Win

Richard Kroell won his second straight World Cup giant slalom today and, for the second time, led a 1-2-3 finish by Austrian skiers.

Kroell, who had never won a World Cup event until 10 days ago, had two near-flawless runs over a course made bumpy by hard artificial snow. He beat teammate Hubert Strolz by more than half a second.

Rudolf Nierlich, winner of two gold medals in the 1988 World Championships, was third.

Pirmin Zurbriggen, bidding for his fourth overall World Cup title before retiring from the tour, finished 14th and lost some of the cushion in his lead in the overall standings.

Christian Ole Furuseth, his closest rival, was fourth today and now trails the Swiss skier by 22 points after 20 of 34 scheduled races. But the Norwegian slalom specialist avoids the downhill races.

Kroell, a 21-year-old in his third season, produced a major surprise when he won at Alta Badia, Italy, earlier this month. That was the first victory in his career, and it moved him up to the elite first 15 starters at Veysonnaz.

Starting 10th today, he had the fastest first run after clocking the best intermediate time. On the second, he was edged only by Kjetil Andre Aamodt, a 19-year-old Norwegian newcomer to the World Cup tour.

Aamodt finished sixth after being 14th in the first run.

Veysonnaz was a race site for the first time, replacing the traditional Adelboden venue because of bad weather.

The course features a drop of 1,320 feet, with 53 gates on the first leg and 56 on the second.