More Gold for Sweden’s Wiberg

For Pernilla Wiberg, it seems to be gold or nothing.

The Swedish skier won her second gold medal of the World Alpine Championships on Saturday by taking the slalom at Sierra Nevada, Spain.

Wiberg won the combined earlier in the week. She took home Olympics golds in 1992 and ’94 in the combined and giant slalom, and a gold in giant slalom in the 1991 worlds. She has never won a bronze or silver medal in the big events.

Wiberg finished with a combined time of 1 minute, 31.46 Saturday.

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Vladimir Smirnov of Kazakhstan stopped Bjorn Dahlie’s quest to become the winningest cross-country skier in World Cup history by beating Norway’s Olympic hero in a 30-kilometer race at Trondheim, Norway.

Smirnov won the freestyle event by 21.9 seconds with a winning time of 1 hour, 9 minutes, 36.4 seconds.

Dahlie tied Gunde Svan of Sweden for most career wins when he won his 30th World Cup race three weeks ago at Seefeld, Austria.

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American Kerrin Petty won the women’s 30-kilometer Vasaloppet cross-country ski race at Mora, Sweden,, beating Sweden’s Magdalena Wallin by 11 seconds. . . . Hiroyuki Noake of Japan and Gunda Niemann of Germany set track records while winning their events at the World Cup Allround speedskating races at the Pettit Center in Milwaukee. . . . Sung-Yul Jaegal of Korea, winless on the World Cup speedskating circuit before this weekend, won the 500 meters at Roseville, Minn., for his second victory in as many days. Tomomi Okazaki won the women’s race for the second consecutive day.

Tennis

Goran Ivanisevic stayed on course for a third consecutive tournament victory by beating top-seeded Boris Becker, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), in the semifinal of the European Community Championships at Antwerp, Belgium.

Sixth-seeded Michael Stich of Germany needed less than an hour to overwhelm Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine, 6-4, 6-1, in the other semifinal.

When Mark Philippoussis kept relying on his powerful serve to save himself, Todd Martin took advantage of nine doublefaults by the 19-year-old Australian for a 6-3, 7-5 victory in the Kroger-St. Jude semifinals at Memphis, Tenn.

Martin today will try to become the first player to win the tournament three years in a row. He’ll play either Pete Sampras or Michael Chang.

At Essen, Germany, defending champion Jana Novotna ousted hometown favorite Anke Huber, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the final of the Faber Grand Prix.

In today’s final, the fourth-seeded Novotna, who beat Jennifer Capriati Friday, will face top-seeded Iva Majoli of Croatia, who defeated unseeded Asa Carlsson of Sweden, 6-3, 6-2.

Pro Football

Jumbo Elliott, a mainstay of the Giants’ offensive line for eight years, used the free-agent route to move to New York’s other NFL team, the Jets. Elliott agreed to a five-year deal said to be worth between $15 million and $16 million. . . . The Philadelphia Eagles have extended an offer sheet to Miami Dolphin cornerback Troy Vincent. Terms of the offer were not disclosed.

Boxing

Francois Botha must give a rematch to Axel Schulz because of a trace of a steroid found in Botha’s system after he won the International Boxing Federation heavyweight title.

The IBF Executive and Championship Committees also fined Botha $50,000 after a hearing at Newark International Airport.

The rematch must take place within 180 days, with the stipulation that neither fights in the interim. The winner then has 120 days to defend the title against former champion Michael Moorer.

Botha, of South Africa, won the vacant title from Schulz, a German, on a controversial split decision on Dec. 9 at Stuttgart, Germany. Botha said he had taken the steroid because of an injured elbow.

Track and Field

Two-time world record holder Michael Johnson ran the fastest 400 meters indoors this year and topped a list of five athletes who set meet records at the Mobil Invitational in Fairfax, Va.

Johnson, a two-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist, finished in 45.32 seconds to defeat Mark Everett by almost two seconds and better the 45.55 he ran last year. The victory was the 50th in a row for Johnson, dating to 1989.

Other record breakers included Gwen Torrence in the 60, Bob Kennedy in the 3,000, Maicel Malone in the women’s 400 and Brandon Rock in the men’s 800.

Golf

Meg Mallon turned back rookie sensation Karrie Webb with birdies on the final two holes to win the Hawaiian Ladies Open title at Honolulu with a four-under-par 212. Mallon finished with a final-round 68 to earn $90,000. Webb’s 69 left her at 213.

Graham Marsh, Dave Stockton and Hale Irwin were tied for the lead and 14 players were within four shots after the second round of the Senior Tour American Express Invitational at Sarasota, Fla. The trio of leaders finished play at the TPC at Prestancia at 11-under-par 133.

Auto Racing

Mark Martin overpowered the rest of the 42-car field to win the Goodwrench Service 200 at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham.

In capturing the NASCAR Busch Series event, Martin led for 151 of the 197 laps--including the final 50--on the 1.017-mile oval. There were eight caution flags for a total of 44 laps, slowing Martin’s average speed to only 105.974 mph.

Combined with his third-place finish last week in the Busch Series season opener at Daytona, Martin, a Ford driver, moved into first place in the season points.

Mike McLaughlin’s Chevrolet finished second, trailing Martin across the finish line by 1.35-seconds, about 10 car-lengths.

Tommy Kendall posted the fastest speed in Trans-Am qualifying for today’s Florida Grand Prix 100-mile race through the streets of downtown St. Petersburg, Fla., driving the 1.7-mile course at an average speed of 89.242 mph.

Names in the News

Holly McPeak and Nancy Reno won the Evian Indoor Pro Beach Volleyball Championship at New York’s Madison Square Garden and, with it, the biggest purse ever for a pro-beach event. McPeak and Reno beat Liz Masakayan and Angela Rock, 15-13, to earn $31,500. . . . Arizona diver Brian Spears finished a sweep of the Pac-10 diving championships at Tucson by winning the platform competition.