WINTER SPORTS ROUNDUP : Tomba Hits Cable-Car Worker With Ski Poles

Alberto Tomba struck a cable-car employee before a World Cup slalom Sunday at Veysonnaz, Switzerland, and the incident was reported to the International Ski Federation (FIS) for possible sanctions.

The Italian skier hit the employee in the back with his ski poles after accusing him of opening the cabin door too slowly from the outside, FIS spokesman Jean-Pierre Bahler said.

Tomba later kicked a desk in the cable car station, breaking a window. He finished second to Thomas Stanggassinger of Austria, who hadn’t had a World Cup victory in four years. Stanggassinger’s winning time was 1:30.42.

Race organizers gave Tomba 24 hours to apologize or risk a police complaint by the employee, who was not identified.

In a women’s World Cup slalom at Haus, Austria, Vreni Schneider of Switzerland slid off course midway through her second run, enabling Patricia Chauvet of France to register her first slalom victory.

Schneider, the World Cup slalom champion, had a 0.87-second advantage after the first heat and appeared headed toward her third consecutive victory when she lost control on the scarred, icy course and missed a gate.

Chauvet, fourth after the first run, finished with a two-run combined time of 1:38.24, giving her a 0.63-second victory over Anita Wachter of Austria.

In the European speedskating championships at Heerenveen, the Netherlands, Falko Zandstra of the Netherlands won his second title and also set a point-total world record by winning three of four events. Zandstra’s total was 156.882 points. He won the 1,500 and 500 meters, placed second in the 5,000 and won the 10,000. . . . In a ski-jumping event at Predazzo, Italy, World Cup leader Werner Rathmayr and Andreas Goldberger led the Austrian team to victory with 434.1 points.