Winter Sports -- Healthy Merle Wins Again

MERIBEL, France - Carole Merle, beset by a knee she injured a year ago, demonstrated yesterday she's back in top form by winning her second super giant slalom skiing race in two days.

``It's too bad that the Olympics don't come tomorrow,'' said Merle, who will have to wait two years for a chance at Olympic gold in the winter events to be held in Albertville, in her native France.

On a course soft from an overnight snowfall, completely different from the hard-packed track the day before, Merle, 26, took her sixth career World Cup victory. She won by more than a half-second as she skied down the future 1992 Winter Olympic course in 1 minute, 7.51 seconds.

Far behind was a 17-year-old West German, Katja Seizinger, a surprising second in 1:08.13. Third was Swiss star Maria Walliser, 1:08.30, her second consecutive top-three finish.

Austria's Petra Kronberger was fourth, just a hundredth of a second behind Walliser, but improved her overall World Cup standing. She has 275 points. Austrian teammate and runner-up Anita Wachter has 260. Wachter faltered to 25th yesterday.

Merle, who dominated the super-G races last year before injuring a knee, is back atop the World Cup standings in that event. With one race left, she has 74 points, 12 ahead of Sigrid Wolf of Austria.

As suddenly as Merle is hot, she has to wait for the next race. There is a three-week break in the World Cup calendar and the next scheduled women's races are in Candanchu, Spain, March 3 and 4.

Mahre wins pro slalom

-- NAGANO, Japan - Phil Mahre easily beat Norwegian Torjus Berge in the finals to win the World Pro slalom crown for the second straight year at the Pro Ski World Championships at Happo-One Resort.

Bernhard Knauss, who won the giant slalom and was second in the Super G, lost to Mahre in the slalom semifinals but advanced far enough to clinch the overall world championship title.

For finishing third overall in the three days of racing, Mahre earned $17,575.

Browning retains ice title

-- SUDBURY, Ontario - Kurt Browning of Edmonton won the gold medal for a second year in a row in the Canadian figure skating championships after taking a header in the finals.

In the free-skating final Saturday night, the 23-year-old world champion was upstaged by Elvis Stojko, 17, coached by Doug Leigh, the man who guided Brian Orser to 1987 world title.

Both skaters advance to the world championships in March.

Notes

-- Gustav Weder of Switzerland completed a sweep of the 1990 World Bobsled Championships, using the home-track advantage in St. Moritz to defend his four-man title, one week after winning gold in the two-man event. He is the first pilot to win both titles since East Germany's Wolfgang Hoppe at the 1984 Winter Olympics. The best U.S. sled, driven by Matthew Roy of Lake Placid, N.Y. was 13th among the 29 entries.

-- Frantisek Jez of Czechoslovakia won a three-hill World Cup ski jumping competition at Engelberg, Switzerland, despite a finishing fifth on the final day. His victories earlier in the week at St. Moritz and Gstaad assured him of an overall win, ahead of Austria's Heinz Kuttin at 625.5 points.

-- Craig Kelley of Mount Vernon won $960 for finishing third in the half-pipe competition at a natinal snowboard invitational at Copper Mountain, Colo. He placed third in Saturday's obstacle event.