Maier Adds Giant Slalom Title to His Season Package

Once a bricklayer in Austria, skier Hermann Maier now works with crystal.

In his first full season on the World Cup circuit, Maier clinched his third crystal globe Saturday at Crans Montana, Switzerland, when he finished third, behind countrymen Stephan Eberharter and Hans Knauss, in the final giant slalom race of the season.

Maier, who won two gold medals at Nagano, was the World Cup winner in the overall, super-G and giant slalom.

He is the first Austrian since Karl Schranz in 1970 to win the overall, and Austria won all five men’s disciplines. It’s the first time a nation has swept all five men’s titles. Swiss women swept in 1987.

Sweden’s Ylva Nowen, 28, claimed the women’s World Cup slalom title, finishing eighth in a race Slovenia’s Urska Hrovat won.

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Olympic champion Jonny Moseley of Tiburon, Calif., won the final moguls event of the season at Altenmarkt, Austria, to clinch his first World Cup moguls title.

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Gunda Niemann of Germany set a world record in winning the 3,000 meters in 4 minutes 5.08 seconds at the world speedskating championships at Heerenveen, Netherlands.

Track and Field

Michigan’s Kevin Sullivan put on a late burst of speed and used a long lean at the tape to beat Bryan Berryhill of Colorado State and win the mile run at the NCAA Indoor Championships at Indianapolis in 4:03.55.

The Arkansas men won their 14th title in 15 years and second in a row, and Texas took its fourth women’s crown since 1986, stopping Louisiana State’s run of five in a row.

Perennial power Abilene Christian swept the men’s and women’s Division II titles at Indianapolis. The men, led by Musa Gwanzura’s 800-meter and mile double, took their third consecutive championship and fifth in six years. The women, sparked by Delloreen Ennis’ third consecutive title in the 55-meter hurdles, won their sixth championship in a row and 10th in 11 years.

Australian Emma George set her 13th world record in the pole vault at the Australian championships at Melbourne, raising her outdoor mark to 15- 1/4.

Marcell Allmond of Chino Hills won the pentathlon at the National Scholastic Championship in Boston with 3,962 points, third on the all-time high school list.

Auto Racing

Greg Moore turned a lap of 217.541 mph on the 1 1/2-mile oval at the Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex, earning the first pole of his CART FedEx Championship Series.

Hiro Matsushita will retire as an driver on the CART FedEx series after the race in Brazil on May 10 and will be replaced by Robby Gordon.

Kenny Bernstein earned his first top-fuel victory of the season with a 4.604-second, 318.47-mph run to beat Larry Dixon at the 29th Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

Other winners were Cruz Pedregon of Moorpark in funny cars and Warren Johnson in Pro Stock final.

Casey Atwood, 17, became the youngest driver to win a pole in the NASCAR Busch Series with a 111.762-mph lap in qualifying for the BellSouth/Opryland 320 at Nashville.

Miscellany

The Chicago Bears have signed Indianapolis offensive tackle Tony Mandarich to an offer sheet. The Colts have until next Friday to match the offer.

Second-seeded Magnus Gustafsson of Sweden beat Denmark’s Kenneth Carlsen, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, to advance to the final of the Copenhagen Open. Gustafsson will meet David Prinosil of Germany, who beat fourth-seeded Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

World Boxing Council super-welterweight champion Keith Mullings (16-4-1), who shocked Terry Norris in December to win the title, retained it at Atlantic City, N.J., with a fifth-round technical knockout over unbeaten No. 1 contender David Ciarlante of Italy.

In the co-feature, International Boxing Federation junior-welterweight champion Vince Phillips of Las Vegas knocked out Alfonso Sanchez of Mexico in the first round of a scheduled 12-rounder.

Boxer Hector “Macho” Camacho was arrested on a drunk-driving charge in Orlando, Fla., after a sheriff’s deputy who stopped him said the boxer couldn’t walk a straight line and refused to submit to a urine test.

Mike Yeo scored two goals as the Houston Aeros defeated the Long Beach Ice Dogs, 5-3, in an International Hockey League game at the Long Beach Arena.