Swiss Skier Wins in World Cup

After nine seasons as a World Cup ski racer, Heidi Zeller-Baehler of Switzerland finally won a race Saturday.

Zeller-Baehler sped down the giant slalom course in Park City, Utah, to win the first race of the season with a two-run time of 2 minutes 22.03 seconds.

That was four-tenths of a second faster than Sabina Panzanini of Italy. Five-time Olympic medalist Vreni Schneider of Switzerland, who turned 30 Saturday, finished third.

Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden, the 1992 Olympic giant slalom champion, fell on the first run, and another prerace favorite, Anita Wachter of Austria, failed to qualify for the second run. None of the six American racers qualified for the second run.

Golf

Robert Gamez shot a four-under-par 68 to take a two-stroke lead heading into the final round of the $1.5-million Casio World Open in Kaimoncho, Japan.

Gamez, 26, had an eagle, four birdies and two bogeys over the 7,014-yard, par-72 Ibusuki Golf Club course for a three-round total of 14-under 202.

Australian Wayne Smith was second after a third-round 68.

Boxing

World amateur flyweight champion Waldemar Font and another Cuban boxer, Manuel Mantilla, were banned from international competition for two years by the International Amateur Boxing Assn. because they failed a drug test at the Goodwill Games in Russia. The decision costs the Cubans two of the six gold medals they won at the competition in St. Petersburg in July.

International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight champion John John Molina successfully defended his belt for the seventh time with a 10th-round knockout of top-ranked contender Wilson Rodriguez in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

Tennis

Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde rallied to defeat defending champions Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands, 6-7 (7-5), 6-4, 6-4, and advance to the final of the ATP Tour World Doubles Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Also moving into today’s final were Jan Apell and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden, seeded fifth, who beat the sixth-seeded Australian-Russian pair of David Adams and Andrei Olhovskiy, 6-3, 6-2.

Miscellany

FIBA, the world governing body of basketball, decided to have another qualifying tournament for next year’s European Championship, thereby allowing Yugoslavia, once a major basketball power, to return to international competition after the partial lifting of U.N. sanctions.

China’s Li Dan and Timur Taimazov of Ukraine each won three gold medals at the World Weightlifting Championships in Istanbul, Turkey.

Japanese-born Nobuaki Koyago of New York won the New York Road Runners-Broadway Ultra Marathon, covering the 37.2 miles in Central Park in 4 hours 11 seconds. Ellen McCurtin, a law student at Virginia, won the women’s race in 4:53.09.

Neal Marshall of Canada won the opening World Cup speedskating race of the season, beating Olympic silver medalist Aadne Soendral of Norway in the 1,500-meter event in Berlin.