Bobby Unser Missing on Snowmobile Trip

Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser and another man were missing Saturday after embarking on what was supposed to be a day trip of snowmobiling, state police said at Chama, N.M.

Unser, 63, and Robert Gaynor, 36, were to return Friday but failed to do so, said Sgt. Crystel Menesee of the state police post at Espanola.

“The trail that they took runs from New Mexico into Colorado,” Menesee said.

She said state police and Colorado’s Canjejos County sheriff’s deputies were searching for the men.

“It’s expanding, but last I heard there were six to 13 ground units and air support is on standby,” Menesee said.

Temperatures were forecast to dip below freezing Saturday night.

Winter Sports

Kristian Ghedina became the first Italian to win a World Cup downhill at Val Gardena, Italy, since 1977, beating favored Frenchman Luc Alphand and Austrian Josef Strobl.

It was Ghedina’s fifth downhill victory in his career, matching the Italian record held by Herbert Plank. Plank was also the last Italian to win a downhill at Val Gardena.

Ghedina, third behind Alphand and Atle Skaardal of Norway after Friday’s race, was timed in 2 minutes 0.28 seconds down the full 3,346-meter Saslong course. Alphand was second in 2:00.51. Strobl placed third in 2:00.73.

AJ Kitt of Boulder, Colo., was eighth, 1.23 seconds behind Ghedina. Teammates Kyle Rasmussen of Angels Camp, Calif., and Tommy Moe of Girdwood, Ark., finished 26th and 27th, respectively.

Claudia Riegler of New Zealand won her second consecutive World Cup slalom, edging world champion Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden at Crans Montana, Switzerland.

Wiberg, leading after the first run, settled for second place for the second time this season behind Riegler, while France’s Patricia Chauvet finished third.

World Cup slalom champion Elfi Eder of Austria crashed in the first leg. Overall World Cup champion Katja Seizinger of Germany missed the race because of flu.

Americans Carrie Sheinberg and Shaina Mulkern also went off course in the first run while Tasha Nelson did not qualify for the second run. Kristina Koznick was the only American to qualify for the second run but failed to finish.

In a World Cup doubles luge event at Konigssee, Germany, Chris Thorpe of Marquette, Mich., and Gordy Sheer of Croton, N.Y., finished the opening month of the season by winning for a third time and extending their lead in the overall standings to 19 points.

World champion Ross Powers led the men and Shannon Dunn paced the women to win the first $75,000 U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix at Sugarloaf USA in Carrabassett Valley, Maine.

Swimming

Ryan Mitchell set a world short-course record for the men’s 200- meter breaststroke at the Australian Championships in Melbourne in a special time trial granted by officials who earlier disqualified Mitchell for an illegal turn in the heats. Mitchell, 19, clocked 2:07.66 to break the previous record of 2:07.52, set by fellow Australian Phil Rogers in 1993.

Names in the News

Russia’s Elena Dementieva beat Melissa Middleton, 14, of Houston, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, to win the 16-and-under singles title at the Rolex Orange Bowl international tennis championships at Miami Beach. . . . Russell Christie, 34, the younger brother of Britain’s former world and Olympic sprint champion Linford Christie has been killed in a street fight, police in London said. . . . Lou Eisenstein, 83, who officiated NBA games for nearly 30 years and also worked 14 consecutive NIT finals, died at his home in New York of a heart attack.