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Show - Lars Erik; Hinders, ' taking "4 home $2 . 750 for third and the 1975 World Pro Skiing Champion, Hank Kashiwa from Steamboat Springs, received $1 ,750 for; fourth -' place. :'' ' .. . ' The tour now moves to Big White Ski Village near Kelowna British Columbia, Canada for the $42,500 v Labatt Pro Challenge featuring featur-ing giant slalom and . slalom competition; Going into the 7th stop on the international pro tour and the first of two races to be held in Canada this season, the field will still be lead by Arnold with Vanatta just 30 points behind harboring the real possibility that he could now take over the lead from Arnold. It would be the first time the World Pro Skiing touf would have an American in the top position since the reigning days of Hank Kashiwa in 1975. Hank's reaction to Vanatta's good fortune? "It ' is about time." In one of the most spectacular competitions in recent World Pro Skiing history, young American Lbnny Vanatta thwarted adversity ad-versity fending, off the world's . best professional racers to capture the slalom , competition of the $50,000 English Leather Cup here, making it a clean sweep for the weekend and bringing him within 30 points of tournament leader and two-time two-time World Pro Skiing Champion, Andre Arnold of Austria. The 22-year old from . Steamboat Springs, Colorado who has been thrilling , . professional ski racing fans with his seemingly flawless technique, from the start of ?-; the tour in Austria through :the competition here in Vermont, made easy work of each competitor he faced in the star-studded field of international pro racers. But apparent disaster struck in an otherwise brilliant performance per-formance by . Vanatta when, in the quarter finals, he fell on the steep, icy course and gave his challenger, Diego Amplatz of Italy, a 1.5 second advantage going into the second round. When the two left the start, for the second of two runs, it was all Vanatta using every piece-of knowledge he learned from his U.S. Ski ; ; ; r- ii Teant 'experience; and past-two past-two years as a pro, to pull out the victory against Amplatz with a time differential of 1.552. Nearly three full gates separated the two competi- "' tors as Vanatta crossed the finish line in victory. Not only' did Vanatta advance to ultimately defeat former Austrian World Cup great, Hans Hinterseer in the finals, Vanatta was also presented with the Omega-Comeback Omega-Comeback Award, air Omega Speedma'ster watch, for his accomplishments his match ; with Amplatz.'This ls.Vanat-ta's ls.Vanat-ta's second Comeback ; I Award this season. iAntpbttbd; . received' the award in an earlier round by overcoming a .801 deficit to defeat Alain Cousineau of ; Canada by a differential of .802. The award is presented , to the racer who overcomes a .750 deficit or more in the final round. . Vanatta received another check for $6750 for his slalom win today and, combined with his winnings in the giant slalom yesterday, yester-day, including sponsor endorsements, en-dorsements, the current top American on the tour will take home more than $30,000 in earnings for the weekend's week-end's work. Hinterseer collected $3,750 for second place with the newcomer from Sweden . |