Italian Woman Wins

With horns blowing and thousands of Italians serenading her with chants, Deborah Compagnoni won the giant slalom for her second gold medal of the World Alpine Ski Championships at Sestriere, Italy.

Italy’s best woman skier of all time, now a rival of slalom star Alberto Tomba for national stardom, skied two excellent runs to finish in 2 minutes, 39.19 seconds. She has won five gold medals in the Olympics or world championships.

Switzerland’s Karin Roten was second in 2:39.99 and Leila Piccard of France was third in 2:40.95.

Nicolas Fontaine of Canada uncorked a big final jump to pass American Eric Bergoust and win the aerials gold medal with a record score of 254.98 points on the final day of the Freestyle Ski World Championships at Nagano, Japan.

Earlier in the day, Australian Kirstie Marshall set a record for women’s aerials points, earning 197.92, to break her own mark of 186.39 set two weeks ago at Breckenridge, Colo.

The silver medal went to Michele Rohrbach of Switzerland, who finished with 177.84. World Cup leader Veronica Brenner of Canada was third with 176.79.