WINTER SPORTS : Norway’s Skiers Are in Groove

With one month to go before the Winter Olympics in their country, the Norwegian Alpine skiers are ready.

Italy’s Alberto Tomba is not.

Christian Jagge, the 1992 Olympic champion, led a 1-2 Norwegian finish in a World Cup slalom Sunday at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. Christian Furuseth was second.

Jagge gave Norway its first World Cup victory of the season with two flawless runs down the slushy Podkoren course. His total time was 1 minute 43.46 seconds. Furuseth’s time was 1:43.51.

While Scandinavians dominated the weekend skiing competition, Tomba had his problems. He fell in Saturday’s giant slalom and on Sunday he was still in contention in the slalom until late in the second run when he straddled a game and was disqualified.

Norway’s Kjetil-Andre Aamodt finished sixth Sunday and picked up 40 points in the overall World Cup standings, enabling him to regain first place with a total of 574.

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Eric Flaim, the silver medalist in the 1988 Olympics in long-track speedskating, was the top pick for the United States’ short-track team.

Flaim, 26, of Boston, who started training for short-track speedskating a year ago, set a U.S. record in the 1,000-meter time trials at Lake Placid, N.Y., Saturday with a time of 1 minute 30.78 seconds.

Andy Gabel, Randy Bartz, and John Coyle, all of Milwaukee, also clinched spots on the team at the U.S. Olympic trials.

Cathy Turner, 31, of Hilton, N.Y., won the top spot on the women’s short-track team after setting U.S. records in both the 500-meter race (46.53 seconds) and the 1,000-meter time trial (1:38.18).

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At Altenmark, Austria, Vreni Schneider completed a Swiss conquest of the Australian Alps by posting her 47th World Cup victory in the season’s fifth slalom. It was her third slalom victory of the season.

Heidi Zurbriggen of Switzerland was awarded her first World Cup victory when officials upheld Saturday’s results of a super giant slalom although the race had to be abandoned after 32 starters for safety reasons.

On Sunday, Schneider twice blazed down the Unterbergalmhang course, compiling a total time of 1:36.41. Schneider, the defending World Cup slalom champion, posted the fastest time in both rounds--46.57 in the 56-gate first heat and 49.84 in the 60-gate second.

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At Schonach, Germany, Japan’s Kenji Ogiwara won his fourth straight World Cup in Nordic combined, finishing 67 seconds ahead of countryman Takanori Kono after the 15-kilometer cross-country race.