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Show U.S. Ski Team racer finishes 1 9th in World Cup competition in Italy America's team of Koch, Endestad, Galanes and Bill Spencer skied to a seventh-place showing while a second U.S. team of Kevin Brochman, Todd Boonstra, Bruce Likly and Joe Galanes finished 14th. Finland's Marja Matikkaenen ran away with the women's 5K race Dec. 7 in beating second-place Anfisa Romanova, Soviet Union, by 22 seconds. Top U.S. finisher of the day was Sue Long's 33rd-place showing. Cami Thompson was 37th and Lynda Walters 41st. The U.S. men's and women's cross country squads tuned up for the World Cup opener at the Canadian Cup races held Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. In the 15-kilometer men's event top honors went to Swiss veteran Giachem Guidon. Jim Galanes was the runnerup for the U.S., three seconds off the winning pace. Other U.S. skiers who placed in the competition that included athletes from the United States, Switzerland and Canada were: Endestad in 8th; Spencer 9th. Brochman finished 12th and Bruce Cranmer was 16th. On Dec. 1, Galanes was again bridesmaid. However, this time it was to Guidon's teammate, Andreas Gruenenfelder. Switzerland's Evi Kratzer took home top honors in the 5K event over Canadian Angela Schmidt-Foster. The top U.S. finisher was Cami Thompson in seventh. Italy's Michael Mair parlayed patience pa-tience and luck to win his first World Cup downhill event, which touched off a long-awaited Italian celebration. celebra-tion. It was Italy's first downhill triumph since Herbert Plank won at Lake Louise in March 1980. Mair edged out defending overall World Cup champion Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg by 34-hundredths of a second. Austria's Peter Wirnsberger was third, 67-hundredths of a second off the winning time. America's Doug Lewis finished a somewhat disappointing 19th, tops for the U.S. skiers, two seconds behind Mair. Lewis had turned in the best training time the day before, which was 11-hundredths of a second faster than Mair's time. "I was not carving turns, but chopping chop-ping them," Lewis said. "I was too stiff I guess." Other U.S. placings for the day were: Mike Brown, tied for 36th; Andy An-dy Chambers, 48th; Bill Johnson, 49th and Tom Bowers was 50th. The World Cup Super G (a combination com-bination of giant slalom and downhill) scheduled for Dec. 8 was canceled. The downhillers will now move to Val Gardena, Italy, where they will compete Dec. 14. The women opened World Cup competition with a Super G Dec. 7 and a slalom Dec. 8 in Sestriere, Italy. Ita-ly. U.S. women vaulted to a second-place second-place spot in the early Nations Cup standings behind a fourth-place Super G finish from Debbie Armstrong Arm-strong and a fifth-place showing from Eva Twardokens. However, top honors of the day went to defending World Cup giant slalom champion Marina Kiehl of West Germany as she beat team-mate team-mate Michaela Gerg "by 22-hundredths of a second in clocking clock-ing a 1 :28.44 for the win. Yugoslavia's Mateja Svet came out of the 51st start position to nail down the third place spot 70-hundredths of a second behind Kiehl. Armstrong posted a time of 1 : 29.44 starting from the 27th position while Twardokens' time was 1 : 29.75. Other U.S. placings on the day included in-cluded Tamara McKinney in 19th, Beth Madsen in 25th, Diann Roffe in 35th and Pam Fletcher in 36th. Austria's Roswitha Steiner skied to a two-tenths of a second victory ti i. i ' i ; - i i I over defending World Cup slalom champion Erika Hess of Switzerland in winning the first women's slalom of the season. Steiner recorded a combined time of 1:30.02 while Hess timed in at 1:30.32. Twardokens led the U.S. charge, earning a fourth-place finish seven-tenths seven-tenths of a second behind Steiner. McKinney also picked up World Cup points for her lOth-place finish, despite getting tangled up in the top portion of the first run course. Madsen finished 24th and Armstrong ended up 58th. The Nordic World Cup opened Dec. 6 in Canada with men's and women's cross country in Labrador City, while jumping began in Thunder Bay. It was a rather familiar name that occupied the men's cross country victory platform as two-time defending defen-ding World Cup champion Gunde Svan of Sweden posted a 47:11.1 good enough to defeat Norway's Nor-way's Pal Gunnar Mikkelsplass by 13 seconds in the 15K Competition. Vladmir Smirnov, Soviet Union, was third. Top U.S. skier was Jim Galanes, who picked up World Cup points with a 15th-place finish. Audun Endestad finished 24th and Bill Koch 30th for the United States. Yugoslavia's Primos Ulaga, who claimed top honors on the 70-meter hill Dec. 7, made it two in a row by capturing the World Cup 90-meter competition Dec. 8. Ulaga, who was fifth after the first round, edged past runnerup Franz Neulandtner of Austria by one point. Austria's Ernst Vettori was third. Placing second in the 70-meter hill was Vegaard Opaas of Norway, while defending World Cup champion cham-pion Matti Nykaenen, Finland, was third. Rick Mewborn was the top American jumper with an llth-place finish after posting the longest jump in the trial round. Joining Mewborn in the points was Mike Holland in 15th. Top U.S. athletes in the 90-meter competition were Holland in 13th and Mewborn in 16th. Zane Palmer was 19th, Scott Smith 26th and Nils Stolzlechner was 27th. The cross country men also ran a 4x10 kilometer relay Dec. 8 and the team from Sweden outsprinted the Soviet Union to take top honors while the Norwegian team was third. I if j i 1 & |