Maier Adds Giant Slalom Title to His Season Package

Once a bricklayer in Austria, skier Hermann Maier now works with crystal.

In his first full season on the World Cup circuit, Maier clinched his third crystal globe Saturday at Crans Montana, Switzerland, when he finished third, behind countrymen Stephan Eberharter and Hans Knauss, in the final giant slalom race of the season.

Maier, who won two gold medals at Nagano, was the World Cup winner in the overall, super-G and giant slalom.

He is the first Austrian since Karl Schranz in 1970 to win the overall, and Austria won all five men’s disciplines. It’s the first time a nation has swept all five men’s titles. Swiss women swept in 1987.

Sweden’s Ylva Nowen, 28, claimed the women’s World Cup slalom title, finishing eighth in a race Slovenia’s Urska Hrovat won.

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Gunda Niemann of Germany set a world record in winning the 3,000 meters in 4 minutes 5.08 seconds at the world speedskating championships at Heerenveen, Netherlands. The old record was 4:07.13, set by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein, who finished second.

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Line Selnes of Colorado won the 15-kilometer event in 41 minutes 19.4 seconds for her second gold medal of the NCAA Skiing Championships at Bozeman, Mont., and enough points to lead her team to the national title over Utah.

In the men’s race at Bohart Ranch, Thorodd Bakken, a senior from Vermont, won the 20-kilometer freestyle in 52:40.6.

Track and Field

Michigan’s Kevin Sullivan put on a late burst of speed and used a long lean at the tape to beat Bryan Berryhill of Colorado State and win the mile run at the NCAA Indoor Championships at Indianapolis.

The finish was dramatic, with only 0.01 seconds separating the top two and 0.06 seconds separating the first three. Sullivan’s winning time was 4:03.55.

The Arkansas men won their 14th title in 15 years and second in a row, and Texas took its fourth women’s crown since 1986, stopping LSU’s run of five in a row.

Perennial power Abilene Christian swept the men’s and women’s Division II titles at the NCAA Indoor Championships at Indianapolis.

The men, led by Musa Gwanzura’s 800-meter and mile double, took their third consecutive championship and fifth in six years. The women, sparked by Delloreen Ennis’ third consecutive title in the 55-meter hurdles, won their sixth championship in a row and 10th in 11 years.

Australian Emma George set her 13th world record in the pole vault at the Australian athletics championships at Melbourne, raising her own outdoor mark to 15- 1/4.

Auto Racing

Greg Moore turned a lap of 217.541 mph on the 1 1/2-mile oval at the Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex, earning the first pole of his CART FedEx Championship Series.

Hiro Matsushita will retire as an driver on the CART FedEx series after the race in Brazil on May 10 and will be replaced by Robby Gordon.

Kenny Bernstein earned his first top fuel victory of the season with a 4.604-second, 318.47-mph run to beat Larry Dixon at the 29th Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

Other winners were Cruz Pedregon of Moorpark in funny cars and Warren Johnson in Pro Stock final.

Casey Atwood, 17, became the youngest driver to win a pole in the NASCAR Busch Series with he drove a Chevrolet on a 111.762-mph lap in qualifying for the BellSouth/Opryland 320 at Nashville.

Football

The Chicago Bears have signed Indianapolis offensive tackle Tony Mandarich to an offer sheet. The Colts have until next Friday to match the offer.

NFL luminaries, fans and family gathered to remember Packer linebacker Ray Nitschke in a memorial service in Green Bay.

Tennis

Second-seeded Magnus Gustafsson of Sweden beat Denmark’s Kenneth Carlsen, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, to advance to the finals of the Copenhagen Open. There, Gustafsson will meet David Prinosil of Germany, who beat fourth-seeded Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

Jurisprudence

Boxer Hector “Macho” Camacho was arrested on a drunken driving charge in Orlando, Fla., after a sheriff’s deputy who stopped him said the boxer couldn’t walk a straight line and refused to submit to a urine test.