U.S. Lugers Win Again

Sun., Dec. 22, 1996

Compiled From Wire Services

Chris Thorpe and Gordy Sheer finished a torrid opening month of the season by winning their third World Cup doubles luge event in four tries and extending their lead in the overall standings to 19 points.

Thorpe, of Marquette, Mich., and Sheer, of Croton, N.Y., had the two fastest times of the day at Konigssee, Germany’s technically difficult track. Their total time of 1 minute, 30.060 seconds was 0.14 seconds clear of Italians Gerhard Plankensteiner and Oswald Haselreider, who finished second to the Americans for the second straight week.

Stefan Krausse and Jan Behrendt of Germany took third in 1:30.243.

Kristian Ghedina, who’s fond of high speeds, became the first Italian to win a World Cup downhill at Val Gardena, Italy, since 1977, beating favored Frenchman Luc Alphand and Austrian Josef Strobl.

It was Ghedina’s fifth career downhill victory, matching the Italian record held by Herbert Plank. Plank was the last Italian to win a downhill at Val Gardena, 19 years ago.

Ghedina edged Alphand, Friday’s winner, by 0.23 seconds in the second of two consecutive speed races in this north Italian valley.

Alphand, last season’s World Cup downhill champion, was second in 2:00.51. Strobl placed third in 2:00.73.

The top American finisher was A.J. Kitt in eighth place, 1.23 seconds behind Ghedina.

At Crans Montana, Switzerland, Claudia Riegler of New Zealand won her second consecutive World Cup slalom, edging world champion Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden.

Wiberg, leading after the first run, settled for second place for the second time this season behind Riegler, while France’s Patricia Chauvet finished third.

Kristina Koznick was the only American to qualify for the second run but failed to finish.

Fog wiped out the finals of the World Cup acro-ski competition at Piancavallo, Italy, throwing the outcome back to the semifinals.

The men’s competition was won by Switzerland’s Heini Baumgartner, last year’s overall World Cup acro-ski champion. Fabrice Becker of France was second, followed by American Ian Edmondson.

Russian Elena Batalova won the women’s event.

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U.S. Lugers Win Again

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