Austrian Skier Wins On World Cup Circuit After A 13-Year Lull

Nearly 13 years after her only victory on the World Cup circuit, Austrian Sylvia Eder won again, capturing the first women's World Cup super-G race of the season yesterday in Vail, Colo.

Eder held off teammate Veronika Stallmaier to end one of the longest dry spells on the circuit.

At 16, Eder was - and still is - the youngest skier ever to win a World Cup race when she claimed a downhill in Badgastein, Austria, in January 1982. Now 29, she is among a select group of elderly skiers to win on the circuit.

"I never gave up hope that I could win again," Eder said. "It's doubly nice to win in Vail because it's my favorite place to ski."

Eder, in her 15th and final season of racing, came out of the 19th start position to post a time of 1 minute, 21.26 seconds.

-- Liechtenstein's Achim Vogt, with only two top 10 finishes in his career, won the first men's World Cup ski event of the season, capturing the giant slalom in Tignes, France. Vogt was timed in 2:30.76.

-- Gunda Niemann of Germany won both her World Cup speedskating races in Heerenveen, Netherlands, to remain unbeaten after two meets this season. Niemann won the 1,500 meters in 2:03.40 and the 3,000 meters in 4:14.07.

Hiroyuki Noake of Japan won the only men's race of the day, the 1,500 meters, in 1:54.14.

-- Olympic winner Kurt Brugger and Wilfried Huber of Italy edged the United States doubles team of Chris Thorpe and Gordi Sheer to win the World Cup luge in Winterberg, Germany. The Italians were timed in 1:22.381, the Americans in 1:22.732.

Jane Bode of Germany won the women's singles at 1:22.700.

Horse racing

The team of owner John Franks, trainer Bobby Barnett and jockey Pat Day won three races on the Louisiana Champions Day program at the Fair Grounds, which offered a total purse $735,000 for 11 races with Louisiana-bred entries.

The victories by the Franks-Barnett-Day team came in the $125,000 Classic with Finder's Wish, the $100,000 Ladies with Eskimo's Angel and the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Turf with Madam Vilzak.

Hockey

Wayne Gretzky and his NHL All-Stars opened their European tour with a 7-1 victory over Finnish champion Jokerit in Helsinki, Finland. The game was billed by Finnish promoters as the "match of the century."

"They were pretty tired," said Finnish ace Teemu Selanne, the Winnipeg Jets forward who was the NHL goal-scoring co-leader and Rookie of the Year in 1992-1993. "But then again, nobody was out to kill anyone."

"The way they're playing, I'd rather be somewhere else," said a fan, Pekka Nieminen, who paid $33 for a ticket to the sold-out game. "This game is just boring. They're all playing boring hockey."

-- The NHL owners' lockout has entered its 10th week and, more than ever, emotions have replaced discourse - yet another obstacle negotiators face as they scramble to save the season.

"They don't think our changes are movement and we don't think their changes are movement," said Harry Sinden, the Boston Bruin general manager. "Discouraged? Yeah. Yeah, I am. But hope . . . hope springs eternal. We hope both sides can think about it over the weekend."

The parties met for only about an hour Friday, decided they had nothing more to talk about, and agreed to meet again tomorrow in Chicago. Most agree that if a deal isn't done by mid-December, the season probably will be lost.

Swimming

Sweden's team of Zsolt Hegmegi, Lars-Ove Jansson, Joakim Holmqvist and Per Lindstrom broke its world 200-meter freestyle relay record by 0.32 seconds with a time of 1:27.62 in the European Sprint Swimming Championships in Stavanger, Norway.

Asian Games

The 11 Chinese athletes who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at the Asian Games have been stripped of their medals, the Olympic Council of Asia said.

Abdul Muttaleb Al-Ahmad, director general of hte council, said that "it has been proven beyond any doubt that they took hydrotesterone."

- Seattle Times news services