Maier Crashes, but Austrians Still Finish 1-2 in Downhill

The last downhill before the world championships ended in a crash for Hermann Maier and another 1-2 finish for Austria on Saturday at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

Fritz Strobl finished first in 2 minutes 0.93 seconds and Peter Rzehak was second in 2:01.22 as Austrians placed in four of the top six places in one of the toughest downhills on the World Cup circuit.

Nearly half a second off the pace in the upper part of the course, Maier was almost three-tenths ahead when he crashed.

“I was coming down at a very high speed, it’s the fastest section of the course. The wind may have made the race a bit unfair,” said Maier.

The world championships begin Monday in St. Anton, Austria, and Maier, the undisputed star of the Austrian team, will be defending his downhill and super giant slalom titles.

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Kim Christiansen and Daniel Franck of Norway were first and second in the men’s half-pipe at the snowboard world championships at Madonna Di Campiglio, Italy.

Kelly Clark and Gretchen Bleiler of the U.S. finished ninth and 11th as the Americans failed to retain the world titles in the men’s and women’s half-pipe.

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Manabu Horii of Japan won a World Cup speedskating race at Helsinki. Jeremy Wotherspoon of Canada and Hiroyasu Shimizu of Japan shared third place (36.86 seconds) as they resumed their battle for the title.

Shimizu has 392 points to 390 for Wotherspoon with five races left.

Among the women, Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt of Germany won the 500 in 39.78 seconds and the 1,000 (1:21.37), taking over the World Cup lead.

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Countrymen Sebastian Haseney and Marco Baacke of Germany finished 1-2 in a World Cup Nordic combined sprint event at Steamboat Springs, Colo. . . . Aerialists Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus and Jacqui Cooper of Australia won World Cup aerial events in the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Grand National at Newry, Maine. In the women’s competition, Alla Tsuper of Belarus was second and Evelyne Leu of Switzerland was third. . . Defending champion Christoph Langen guided his German two-man sled into the lead after a pair of opening runs at the bobsled world championships at St. Moritz, Switzerland. . . Adam Malysz of Poland won his sixth ski jump event and regained the lead in the World Cup standings at Sapporo, Japan.

Boxing

Michael Bennett, who got interested in boxing while in an Illinois prison, won his pro debut in spectacular fashion at New York.

Bennett, 29, a quarterfinalist in the Sydney Olympics, draped Andrew Hutchinson of New York over the ropes with a right hand, then drove him to the floor with three more crunching rights.

Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. stopped the scheduled four-round heavyweight bout at 1:46 of the first round.

Bennett, who had a relatively short but remarkable amateur career after getting out of prison in 1998, where he served seven years for armed robbery, was one of six Olympians to make a winning pro debut.

Also winning were Jose Navarro of Los Angeles; Ricardo Williams Jr. of Cincinnati; Jermain Taylor of Little Rock, Ark.; Clarence Vinson of Washington and Dante Craig of Cincinnati.

Navarro had no trouble scoring a unanimous decision in a bantamweight bout against Kenny Berrios of Puerto Rico, who took the fight on 36 hours’ notice and was fighting for the first time in two years.

Former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko stopped former World Boxing Assn. cruiserweight champion Orlin Norris in only 69 seconds at Munich, Germany. Norris appeared to quit as spectators booed loudly.

Klitschko (28-1, 27 knockouts) knocked down Norris (51-7) with a right-hand blow.

It was the second strange ending for Norris. Mike Tyson floored him after the bell in the first round in October 1999. Norris said his leg was injured, leading to a no-contest.

Miscellany

Svetlana Feofanova of Russia became the first European woman to clear 15 feet in the pole vault, soaring 15-0 1/4 at the Karlsruhe indoor meet at Moscow, breaking the mark of 14-11 1/2 set by Nicole Humbert of Germany in 1999.

Oregon State quarterback Tyler Thomas and receiver Alton Adams transferred to Division I-AA Montana State. Because the players transferred to a program lower than Division I, they will not have to sit out a year under NCAA rules. Both players will be juniors in the fall.

Second baseman Todd Walker, who had filed for salary arbitration, has agreed to a three-year, $6.55-million deal with the Colorado Rockies.

Michael Klim of Australia won the 100-meter freestyle in 47.93 seconds and 50-meter butterfly (23.46) on the first day of a short-course World Cup swimming meet at Paris. Tom Malchow of the U.S. won the 200 butterfly (1:53.32), beating teammate Michael Phelps (1:56.70). Barbara Bedford of the U.S. won the women’s 50 backstroke (27.85). Solenne Figues won the women’s 200 freestyle, setting a French record of 1:57.10.

South Africa defeated Burkina Faso, 1-0, and Nigeria defeated Sudan, 3-0, in World Cup soccer qualifiers in Africa.