Kostner Golden in Super-G

Isolde Kostner won Italy’s third gold medal at the World Ski Championships on Tuesday, taking the super-G with a superb recovery in the home stretch at Sestriere, Italy.

Kostner picked up 0.40 seconds with her performance through the last half-dozen gates to edge two Germans, Olympic downhill champion Katja Seizinger and Hilde Gerg.

Kostner, 21, finished in 1 minute 23.50 seconds on the twisting 6,827-feet course, with Seizinger .08 behind and Gerg finishing in 1:23.64.

Kostner won the same race a year ago in Sierra Nevada, Spain. Within hours, she was out singing and dancing in the resort, and a few days later finished a disappointing sixth in downhill.

“I won’t celebrate tonight like I did last year,” said Kostner, who will be among the favorites in Saturday’s downhill. “I’ll wait until the end of the week to do that.”

Kostner wobbled at the top, struggling around the relatively easy third gate. Her jumps weren’t fluid either. Two-thirds of the way through she was 0.40 behind Seizinger. But she handled the last half-dozen gates perfectly--gates that had thrown off the other contenders.

Auto Racing

Chris Trickle, 24, a promising stock car racer, remained in critical condition in Las Vegas as police appealed again for help in finding the gunman who shot him on a freeway overpass Sunday night.

Trickle, nephew of NASCAR Winston Cup regular Dick Trickle, had surgery to remove a bullet from his head.

Mike Swaim Jr., whose father won three poles and four races in this event, continued his family’s magic touch in qualifying at Daytona International Speedway, winning the pole for the Discount Auto Parts 200 NASCAR Dash Series race with a lap of 163.755 mph in a Pontiac.

Lake Speed, who struggled in pole qualifying Saturday, found some speed, turning a 188.162-mph lap in qualifying for Thursday’s twin 125-mile races that will determine much of the field for the Daytona 500. Speed’s Ford moved up from 35th-fastest to 10th in the field.

Elliott Sadler made the first pole of his NASCAR Busch Grand National stock car career a big one, taking the top spot for Saturday’s Gargoyles 300 at Daytona International Speedway with a lap of 190.508 mph in a Chevrolet.

Miscellany

Estonia held Scotland to a scoreless tie in a replayed World Cup soccer qualifier at Monte Carlo. Four months ago, Estonia had failed to show up for the game because of a mix-up in scheduling.

World champion and Olympic silver medalist Fiona May set an Italian indoor record of 22 feet 6 3/4 inches in winning the women’s long jump at the Five Nations track and field meet in Genoa, Italy.

Jurisprudence

University of Rhode Island football player Vincent Valerio was convicted of conspiracy and teammates Cy Butler and Carnelius Cruz were found guilty of misdemeanor assault and conspiracy to commit assault in an Oct. 7 fraternity-house attack in South Kingstown, R.I., that prosecutors called an act of revenge. No sentencing date was scheduled and the players were released on bail.

In an unprecedented move in the 50-year history of the Yankee Conference, Rhode Island forfeited a game at Connecticut on Oct. 19 because of the incident.

Baseball

Shortstop John Valentin agreed to a $3.75-million, one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox. . . . The Angels have invited catcher Ben Molina to spring training as a nonroster player to replace catcher Scott Vollmer, who will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder Thursday.

Names in the News

Viktor Lysenko, a Russian wrestling coach who helped Magometkhan Gamzatkhanov win a Greco-Roman world title, was gunned down in what appeared to be gangland-style murder in Tula, Russia. . . . Byron Bailey, 66, a college star at Washington State, running back with the NFL champion Detroit Lions in 1952 and a CFL Hall of Fame player with the British Columbia Lions from 1954-64, has terminal prostate cancer in Vancouver, Canada.