Veteran Zurbriggen Wins His 1st Ski Race of Season

SESTRIERE, Italy —  Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland edged Lars-Boerje Eriksson, a rising star from Sweden, by .11 seconds to win a World Cup super-giant slalom ski race today. It was Zurbriggen’s first victory of the season and 35th of his 10-year World Cup career.

Zurbriggen, bidding for a record-equaling fourth overall title in his last year of racing, covered the fast, hard-packed Kandahar course in 1 minute, 37.39 seconds.

Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg, who won his third overall title last season, fell 25 seconds into the race and skidded off the course, adding to a long list of early-season casualties. Girardelli suffered hip and spinal bone injuries, and doctors said he will need a month’s rest. There were no breaks or internal injuries, doctors added.

Other early season World Cup casualties include Italy’s Alberto Tomba and Michael Mair, American Tamara McKinney, Swiss skiers Martin Hangl and Vreni Schneider, and Austrian Helmut Mayer.

Eriksson, who won the opening World Cup giant slalom in Australia in August, missed a second victory by finishing in 1:37.50.

Franck Piccard of France, the 1988 Olympic super-G champion, was third in 1:37.86.

World Cup overall leader Ole Christian Furuseth of Norway did not finish among the top 15 and failed to score a point. He retained his hold on the overall World Cup points lead after nine events with 118 points. Zurbriggen moved into second with 101 points.

Zurbriggen said that the 2,525-meter course, dropping 650 meters and covered with artificial snow, was extremely fast “and security was not so good.”

Eriksson said the course was somewhat narrow.