Supercross Racer Killed During Qualifying Race

A motorcycle rider was killed during a qualifying race, flying over the handlebars and crashing while his parents watched from the stands at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

Jason Ciarletta, 19, died Saturday night at the AMA Supercross. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. There will be an autopsy today, the medical examiner’s office said.

Ciarletta landed headfirst in the dirt and did not move as paramedics worked on him for more than 15 minutes.

The death is the first in Supercross, a more compact and technically demanding hybrid of the off-road sport known as motocross. The last recorded death in American motocross was in 1975.

Fewer than 2,000 people were in the stands at the time of the accident.

Winter Sports

Kalle Palander of Finland won a slalom at Kitzbuehel, Austria, and Thomas Grandi was second for the best result ever in a World Cup technical event by a Canadian man.

Palander, the defending World Cup slalom champion, covered the two runs on the Ganslernhang course in 1 minute 30.63 seconds, to give him the overall lead.

Grandi finished 0.08 of a second behind, and Rainer Schoenfelder of Austria was third in 1:31.69. Bode Miller finished fourth.

Anja Paerson of Sweden won her third straight World Cup slalom to strengthen her lead in the overall standings.

Paerson, who was victorious in the giant slalom Saturday, has won all but one of the six slaloms this season.

She led after the first run by almost half a second at Maribor, Slovenia, then stretched the gap to a whopping 1.24 seconds over Austria’s Marlies Schild.

Another Austrian, Nicole Hosp, was third, 1.35 seconds off the pace. Paerson finished in 1:38.08

Germany’s Andre Lange guided his four-man bobsled team to victory at St. Moritz, Switzerland, giving him the European championship and extending his lead in the overall World Cup standings.

Lange had a combined time of 2 minutes 10.46 seconds -- 0.20 ahead of Todd Hays of the United States.

Ivo Rueegg was third at 2:10.71 for Switzerland’s first top-three finish of the World Cup season.

World Cup champions Patrick Leitner and Alexander Resch won a luge doubles race at Igls, Austria, to move to the top of the overall standings.

Germany’s Sylke Otto, the 2002 Olympic champion, won the women’s singles and is on her way to a successful defense of her 2003 title.

Leitner and Resch had a combined time of 1 minute 20.234 seconds.

Otto finished in 1:20.811, ahead of countrywomen Tatjana Huefner (1:20.962) and Silke Kraushaar (1:21.124).

Finland’s Hannu Manninen won a World Cup Nordic combined event at Sapporo, Japan, for his third victory in the last four competitions.

Manninen was sixth in ski jumping on the 120K hill with 124.8 points and completed the 10-kilometer cross-country race in 23 minutes 45.1 seconds for a total of 244.6 points.

The Dutch dominated World Cup speedskating for the second straight day at Beijing, with Gerard van Velde winning at 1,000 meters and Marianne Timmer taking the 500 and 1,000 women’s races.

Van Velde was timed in 1:09.52 in the 1,000, beating countrymen Beorn Nijenhuis (1:09.93) and Erben Wennemars (1:09.99).

Timmer finished in 39.12 in the 500 and 1:17.49 in the 1,000 for her victories.

Norway’s Anders Aukland and Italy’s Gabriella Paruzzi won a 70-kilometer classical race in World Cup cross-country skiing at Cavalese, Italy.

Aukland won in 3 hours 9 minutes 3.5 seconds, finishing ahead of Italy’s Giorgio Di Centa by 19.9 seconds.

Paruzzi, alone in the lead for much of the mass-start race, finished in 3:33.07.

Raphael Poiree of France won a World Cup biathlon event at Anterselva, Italy, and moved within 18 points of five-time Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjorndalen in the overall standings.

Poiree hit all of his targets and won the 15-kilometer, mass-start race in 39 minutes 40.1 seconds.

Linda Tjorhom of Norway won the women’s 12.5-kilometer race in 41:09.2 with two missed targets.

Australia’s Alisa Camplin won her fourth consecutive women’s freestyle World Cup aerials event at Fernie, Canada, scoring 177.49 points. The Czech Republic’s Ales Valenta won the men’s event with 250.53 points.

Motor Racing

The 2004 NASCAR Touring Series season opened with a number of former Irwindale Speedway drivers making their debuts in the series but with mixed results as they participated in the NASCAR Winter Heat races at Phoenix International Raceway.

In the Autozone Elite Division, Southwest Tour’s phoenixraceway.com 100-lap feature, Eddie McKean improved on his second-place finish the previous year by going flag to flag in earning his fourth career win by holding off Midwest Series driver Tim Schendel for the victory.

In the race, Rip Michels and Todd Burns, who each earned titles at Irwindale Speedway last season, made their debut in the series, and were among 10 current or former regulars of the speedway racing.

However, Michels had to start on the last row and struggled, finishing 31st. Burns, however, was consistently in the top 20 throughout but was caught in a five-car accident on the final lap, along with fellow Irwindale driver Greg Pursley, and finished 25th.

In the Grand National Division, West Series, veteran NASCAR driver Kenny Schrader earned his 14th career victory at the track by holding off West Series regular Austin Cameron and Busch North driver Matt Kobyluck.

Passings

Lennart Strand, who won a silver medal for Sweden in the 1,500-meter track and field race at the 1948 Olympics, died Friday at 82, the Sydsvenska Dagbladet newspaper reported.

Chris Dufresne has the day off.