Wiberg Wins World Cup Title

Germany’s Katja Seizinger did all she could to delay the inevitable, but in the end, Sweden’s Pernilla Wiberg was sliding toward victory like a runaway ski down an icy slope.

Wiberg won her first World Cup overall Alpine championship Friday morning at Mammoth Mountain with a third-place finish in the super-giant slalom delayed from Thursday, then added the slalom title in the afternoon with a first in that event.

Wiberg needed to finish fourth or better in the super-G to win the overall championship, and when no later racers could drop her in the standings, the title was hers. But it was Seizinger, last year’s overall champion, who made the most noise in the super-G.

She finished in 1 minute 16.08 seconds. Her German teammate Hilde Gerg was second in 1:17.67, .05 of a second ahead of Wiberg. In an event often decided by hundredths of a second, Seizinger’s margin of victory, 1.59 seconds, was by far the widest in a super-G this season. Kind of like Noureddine Morceli lapping the field in a 1,500-meter run.

“You can’t always win,” Seizinger said of the overall championship. “Today was a great day.”

Wiberg was second after the first of two slalom runs, then had the fastest time on the second to win with a combined time of 1:17.90. Austria’s Sabine Egger was second in 1:18.15 and Italy’s Lara Magoni third in 1:18.61.

Wiberg’s finish gave her an insurmountable lead over New Zealand’s Claudia Riegler, who fell on the first run, in the slalom standings. One stop remains on the circuit--the World Cup Finals at Vail, Colo., beginning Wednesday. Wiberg can add the super-G title in Vail.

Wiberg narrowly lost the overall title to Vreni Schneider in 1994 and began this season with only a goal of winning the slalom title.

“Before, I put too much pressure on myself [to win the overall],” she said. “I learned not to think about something the whole season. As soon as you do, you begin skiing worse.”