Austria’s Stangassinger Wins Slalom at Aspen

Thomas Stangassinger of Austria, the first-run leader, withstood a strong second run by Sebastien Amiez of France to win the men’s World Cup slalom Saturday at Aspen, Colo.

Amiez was 22nd after the first run, 1.47 seconds behind Stangassinger, but he had a time of 42.54 seconds in his second run.

The next 20 skiers failed to better Amiez’s two-run clocking of 1:27.58. Stangassinger then put together a solid second run of 43.75 that was only the 13th-fastest but was good enough to win with a cumulative time of 1:27.32.

Americans failed to finish among the top 30 in the first run to qualify for the second heat. The top American in the first heat was Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., who finished 34th in 45.98.

*

Renate Goetschl of Austria doubled her prize money at the women’s World Cup downhill race at Lake Louise, Canada, claiming her second win in a row.

At one point, Austria was poised to sweep the event, but Isolde Kostner of Italy finished second at 1:35.92 and Regina Haeusl of Germany clinched third in 1:35.95.

*

Alexei Urmanov completed a Russian sweep of the titles at the Cup of Russia skating competition in Moscow, winning the event for his first major international triumph this season.

Russians took the top three places, with Yevgeny Plushenko second and Alexander Abt third.

*

Germany’s Christoph Langen overcame changing track conditions that produced two crashes to win the World Cup four-man bobsled race at Park City, Utah, Langen’s second victory in two days. Jim Herberich piloted USA II to the best American finish, placing sixth. . . . Per Elofsson of Sweden, a world junior champion, beat cross-country star Bjorn Dahlie of Norway in the Nordic World Cup season opener at Muonio, Finland. . . . Olympic runner-up Barbara Niedernhuber broke the course record and led a German sweep of the first four places in women’s singles at the luge World Cup race at Altenberg, Germany. . . . Bjarte Engen Vik of Norway, a day after winning the jumping competition, also won the 15-kilometer cross-country race in the World Cup Nordic Combined opener at Lillehammer, Norway. In the World Cup ski jump opener at Lillehammer, Martin Schmidt of Germany highlighted his winning performance with a record leap of 136 meters in the second jump on the 120-kilometer hill.

College Football

Azusa Pacific avenged an earlier loss and advanced to the NAIA semifinals with a 35-28 victory over visiting Central Washington.

The Cougars (10-2) got three touchdowns from running back Adam Shelly, as they avenged a 51-17 loss to the Wildcats (7-4) in September.

Basketball

Adrienne Goodson scored 23 points and Yolanda Griffith had 18 points and 12 rebounds as the Chicago Condors beat the New England Blizzard, 70-57, in an American Basketball League before 8,233 at Hartford, Conn. . . . Rookie Chastity Melvin scored 13 consecutive points at the beginning of the fourth quarter to led the Philadelphia Rage to an 80-72 victory over the Nashville Noise before 1,142 in Philadelphia. . . . Sheri Sam’s three-point shot broke a tie game with 1:03 remaining, and the San Jose Lasers held on to beat the Colorado Xplosion, 75-74, before 2,755 at Denver. . . . Natalie Williams scored 19 of her 26 points in the second half to lead the Portland Power’s 94-63 rout of Seattle before 5,490 at Portland, Ore., stopping the Reign’s season-opening six-game winning streak.

Golf

Joe Ozaki, the youngest of three brothers on the Japan tour, regained the lead in the Casio World Open at Ibusuki, Japan, with a five-under-par 67 in the second round.

Ozaki, who led after the first round, had a bogey-free trip, completing 54 holes with a 205 total.

American Brian Watts also had a 67 and moved into a second-place tie at 206 with Toshimitsu Izawa of Japan, who had a 68.

Tiger Woods, in his first Japan PGA Tour tournament, shot a 71 and fell nine strokes off the lead. Woods had three bogeys, but also had an eagle and two birdies.

Hunter Mahan of McKinney, Texas, and Celeste Troche of Paraguay won the titles at the American Junior Golf Classic at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Both won five matches in two days.

Mahan defeated junior amateur champion James Oh of Lakewood, 4 and 2, in the boys’ title match.

Miscellany

Kostya Tszyu scored a fifth-round technical knockout over Diobelys Hurtado at Indio to win the World Boxing Council welterweight title.

M. Donald Grant, the former chairman of the New York Mets who traded away Tom Seaver in 1977 during a contract dispute, died at his Florida home after a long illness. He was 94.

Defending champion Italy and Yugoslavia advanced to the finals of the men’s World Volleyball Championships at Tokyo.

Italy defeated Brazil, 15-10, 13-15, 15-11, 10-15, 15-10, and Yugoslavia downed Cuba, 15-3, 15-12, 14-16, 15-10.