WINTER SPORTS ROUNDUP : Tomba Shows His Olympic Form Again

Alberto Tomba seems to save his best for Olympic years.

Tomba increased his lead on the World Cup circuit Sunday when he won a giant slalom at Alta Badia, Italy, for his fifth victory in seven races this season.

It was his 23rd World Cup victory in four years, one short of the record set by four-time World Cup winner Gustavo Thoeni, Tomba’s slalom coach.

“I dare say I am skiing better than four years ago, although I am facing more pressure and tougher competition,” Tomba said.

Tomba had a total time of 2 minutes 22.73 seconds. He leads the overall Cup standings with 560 points, 30 ahead of Paul Accola of Switzerland.

Steve Locher, second fastest in both runs, trailed Tomba by 0.37 seconds and Accola was 1.01 seconds back in third.

Jeremy Nobis of the United States was sixth in the first run but fell midway down the second heat. Urs Kaelin of Switzerland tore ligaments in his left knee while warming up and probably will miss the Olympics.

Carole Merle of France, defending World Cup super-G champion, beat Petra Konberger of Austria by 1.15 seconds to gain her first World Cup victory of the season at Santa Caterina, Italy.

Merle finished in 1 minute 26.96 seconds. Heidi Zurbriggen of Switzerland finished third.

Dave Besteman won the men’s 1,000 meters in the U.S. Olympic speedskating trials at Milwaukee, where the wind chill factor was minus 18 degrees.

Besteman finished in 1:17.13, followed by Dan Jansen in 1:17.15 and Nick Thometz at 1:18.03.

Bonnie Blair, defending Olympic champion, won the women’s 1,000 meters in 1:25.0 and leads with one round remaining next weekend. Brian Wanek won the men’s 5,000 in 7:12.45, with Eric Flaim second at 7:16.23.

Grzegorz Filipowski of Poland placed second in the free skating event but earned enough points to win the overall men’s title in the NHK Cup figure skating championships at Hiroshima, Japan.

Filipowski, 25, who won the original program Saturday, finished with 197.9 points.

Vlacheslav Zagorodniuk of the Soviet Union was second with 192.1 points and Soviet Alexei Urmanov was third at 195.7.