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 won the same race a year ago in Sierra Nevada, Spain. Within hours, she was out singing and dancing at 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.

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. won the pole for the Discount Auto Parts 200 NASCAR Dash Series race at Daytona International Speedway 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

Former Internation Boxing Federation featherweight champion Troy Dorsey, claiming a sudden attack of flu, has dropped out of Friday night’s main event against former World Boxing Council super featherweight champ Gabriel Ruelas at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio. In Dorsey’s place will be James Crayton (20-6, 13 knockouts).

Ch. Parsifal Di Casa Netzer, a standard schnauzer known as Pa, won the best-in-breed honors at the Westminster Kennel Club Show in New York.

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

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

Jim Fregosi, fired as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies after last season, was made a special assignment scout and instructor for the San Francisco Giants. . . . 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 have 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. . . . Defending champion Pete Sampras defeated Germany’s Alex Radulescu, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, in the first round of the Sybase Open at San Jose. . . . Byron Bailey, 66, a running back with the NFL champion Detroit Lions in 1952 and a CFL Hall of Fame player with the British Columbia Lions, has terminal prostate cancer. . . . Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Stockton has been named the 1996 bowler of the year by the Bowling Writers Assn. of America.