It’s Close, but Gruber Beats Maier

Christoph Gruber won the last ski race before the Alpine World Championships this week at St. Anton, Austria, barely defeating World Cup leader Hermann Maier by a record .01 of a second in Sunday’s super giant slalom at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in another 1-2 Austrian finish.

The powerful Austrian squad took five of the top seven places.

Maier, who crashed in Saturday’s downhill, could not prevail on the hill where he has won two super-G races, including his first career victory in 1997.

“The others skied well, I tried everything but I couldn’t do more,” he said.

Gruber covered the tough, icy Kandahar course in 1 minute 18.27 seconds for his second victory. He won a giant slalom in December at Bormio, Italy.

Maier was faster in the top part of the course but crossed the line in 1:18.28. It was the narrowest margin of victory since the super-G was introduced to the World Cup in 1982.

Maier lost to fellow Austrian Hannes Trinkl by .03 seconds in Lake Louise, Canada, last year and Gruber lost to Fredrik Nyberg of Sweden by the same margin in December in Beaver Creek, Colo. Maier retained his lead in the super-G standings and extended his overall lead to 404 points over Norway’s Lasse Kjus, who did not compete in the weekend races.

*

Canadian speedskater Jeremy Wotherspoon won at 500 and 1,000 meters at Helsinki on the only outdoor track on the World Cup circuit. Wotherspoon, the world-record holder at both distances, won the 500 in 36.29 seconds, ahead of the Japanese pair of Toyoki Takeda (36.35) and Olympic winner Hiroyasu Shimizu (36.41). He won the 1,000 in 1:12.13.

Norway’s Adne Sondral obstructed Canada’s Mike Ireland and was disqualified. Wotherspoon gained 100 points on Sondral and trails by only 22 points in the 1,000 standings with four races left.

*

The 1972 Olympic ski jump venue at Sapporo, Japan, is becoming Adam Malysz’ favorite stadium. He won a World Cup event there in his first year on the circuit in the 1996-97 season and he earned his second victory in two days for a sweep of weekend events at the K-120 hill.

Malysz, of Poland, led both rounds, leaping 132.5 and 136.0 meters. Finland’s Risto Jussilainen was second with jumps of 132.0 and 133.5 meters, followed by Russia’s Dmitri Vassiliev, who went 131.0 and 127.5 meters.

*

Germany’s Christoph Langen set a track record at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in winning his fifth world championship title in the two-man bobsled. The Olympic champion and brakeman Marco Jakobs finished with a four-run combined time of 4 minutes 16.78 seconds and a .95-second advantage over their closest rivals, Reto Goetschi and Cedric Grand of Switzerland.

*

Karine Ruby of France won the women’s cross event at Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, for her third gold medal at the snowboard world championships. Guillaume Nantermod of Switzerland won the men’s cross title in an event in which Mariano Lopez of Argentina was knocked unconscious. He injured his head during a fall in the semifinals and was taken to a hospital, where he regained consciousness.

Miscellany

Olympic gold medalist Barbara Bedford of the United States announced her retirement after winning her second and third events during a two-day, short-course World Cup swimming meet at Paris.

“I’m retiring as of right now,” said Bedford, a member of the American gold-medal winning 400 medley relay team at the Sydney Olympics.

“No more swimming for me. I’m sure that this is what I want to do.”

On Sunday, Bedford won the 100 medley and 100 backstroke. She won the 50 backstroke Saturday. “I did not expect to do so well here,” she said.

Meanwhile, Qi Hui of China and Mark Foster of Britain set world records. Qi’s world record-breaking time of 2:19.25 seconds in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke broke the record of 2:20.22, set by Japan’s Masami Tanaka in April 1999.

Foster set the world record in the men’s 50 freestyle. His time of 21.13 broke American Anthony Ervin’s record of 21.21 set last March at Minneapolis.

Johanna Sjoeberg of Sweden also won three events, adding the 100 freestyle and 50 butterfly to the 100 butterfly she won Saturday.

Michael Klim of Australia was the only man to win three events. He won the 100 butterfly after taking the 50 butterfly and 100 freestyle Saturday.

Egypt’s chances of advancing to next year’s World Cup were hurt with a 0-0 tie against Morocco during an African qualifier before 90,000 at Cairo’s International Stadium.

The Egyptians have two points from two games, having tied Senegal, 0-0, in their opener. Morocco leads the group with five points. The winner from each of the five African groups advances to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Egypt last played in the World Cup in 1990.

Sprinters Allyn Condon and Daniel Caines ran the fastest times in the world this year at the British Indoor trials at Birmingham, England.

Condon, the former European 200-meter indoor bronze medalist, was timed at 20.60 seconds for the 200. European outdoor silver medalist Doug Turner was second at 20.93 and world junior bronze medalist Tim Benjamin finished third at 21.11.

Caines ran 45.76 for 400 meters and was the fourth Briton to run under 46 seconds indoors.

The U.S. team was defeated by South Korea, 37-20, in the World Team Handball Championships at Paris. It was the Americans’ fifth loss, eliminating them from the competition. They were outscored, 189-80, in their five matches.