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Show Spectacular Week Blasts Off World Pro Season winning track by defeating Josef Odermatt in the giant slalom finals held at Aspen Highlands on Friday. Arnold complained about being tired from the flue, but it was obvious he wasn't hindered too much. Behind Arnold and Odermatt were Canadian Doug Woodcock (3rd place) and American Billy Shaw (4th). Odermatt jammed the starting gate on his first run in the finals against Arnold and the Swiss star was never able to make up the gap. After losing the first run by .618 seconds, Odermatt pressed hard to win the second run, but the margin wasn't great enough, only .356. The victory for Arnold was enough to put him in the lead for the overall championship, and the $5,000 bonus for the top skier in the Budweiser Pro Spree. Andre Arnold won the slalom handily in the final day of the Budweiser Pro Spree, but the spotlight was on the American racers who placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th behind the lanky Austrian on the Buttermilk course. Behind Arnold in the slalom results were Americans Hank Hashiwa, Tyler Palmer and Lonny Vanatta. "1 think I can beat everybody," every-body," Arnold said following the face, and it was evident in the opening event of the 1978-79 WPS schedule that the former housepainter would be difficult to unseat as defending champion. cham-pion. Kashiwa was all smiles after his best finish since winning the tour in 1975. "I was inspired today and that made the difference in getting to the finals," Kashiwa said. The former WPS champion knocked out Odermatt, Jim Hunter and Lonny Vanatta en route to his match with Arnold. There was a lot of speculation prior to World Pro Skiing's opening event the $80,000 Budweiser Pro Spree speculation specu-lation about rookies on the tour, about hot skiers from the World Cup circuit, about new faces on the victory stand. When the Budweiser Cup concluded, however, it was evident that Andre Arnold, the 23 year old World Pro Skiing Champion, still had a firm grasp on the top rung of the ski racing ladder. Arnold captured the Budweiser crown with back-to-back victories in the slalom and giant slalom, following a fifth in the downhill. The week long classic in Aspen, Co. netted the young Austrian nearly one quarter of the total prize money; $19,875 out of a total purse for the annual Budweiser affair of $80,000. It was a week of parades and performance, head-to-head competition and charity benefits, bene-fits, of bartender races and the talented pros, creating a spectacular specta-cular commencement for World Pro Skiing's tenth season. Leading off the pageantry were the majestic Budweiser Clydesdales Clydes-dales parading through the streets of Aspen in their splendor. Veteran Swiss racer, Walter Tresch, captured the downhill honors in the first pro event on Thursday. Tresch skied away from the pack in both the qualifications and the finals. On both days, he was the only racer to break the 57 second mark, and defeated second place finisher Jim Hunter by .675 seconds. Tresch, a second year pro from Bristen, Switzerland, placed plac-ed 17th in the final standings of last year's World Pro Skiing circuit, after joining the tour midway through the season. It was his first downhill victory since turning professional. Tresch was followed in the downhill by Canadians Jim Hunter (placed 2nd) and Bob Miller (placed 4th) and Frenchman French-man Patrice Pellat-Finet (3rd). Three of the top six finishers on the Buttermilk-Tiehack course were rookies. Defending WPS Champion Andre Arnold got on the |