ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP 1997/98
Veysonnaz (SUI) Men's 5th Slalom. 18.Jan.1998
1st/Stangassinger 2nd/Bjorunsson
1st / Tomas Stangassinger(AUT) 2nd / Kristinn Bjornsson(ISL)
3rd/Kimura Jagge
3rd / Kiminobu Kimura(JPN) Fin-Christian Jagge(NOR). missing the gate
Stangassinger and Maier give Austria wins

VEYSONNAZ, Switzerland, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Olympic champion Thomas Stangassinger of Austria warmed up for next month's Nagano Olympics with a World Cup slalom victory on Sunday.
But Italian Alberto Tomba missed out on a career milestone, crashing out of the second run and denying himself a chance of his 50th career win.
Stangassinger completed two superb runs down a rock-hard De l'Ours piste to finish with an aggregate time of one minute 38.12 seconds. It was his second win of the season, taking him to the top of the slalom standings.
``I'm a day-to-day skier, I don't want to think about the form that I will have in Nagano,'' said the 32-year-old after collecting his seventh career win.
``There are still two slaloms left before the Olympics.''
Overall World Cup leader Hermann Maier made it a clean sweep for the Austrians when he finished 10th to claim the season's first combined event and his ninth win.
The two victories give the all-conquering Austrian men 18 wins in 23 events.
Stangassinger was joined on the podium by two of the lesser figures on the World Cup circuit -- Iceland's Kristinn Bjornsson, who took second in 1:38.91, narrowly ahead of Japan's Kiminobu Kimura who clocked 1:38.92.
Bjornsson exploded onto the scene with a surprise second place at the season's opener in Park City, Utah. But then he failed to post a result in the next three races.
Kimura's third place was his first appearance on the podium, boosting Japan's alpine skiing medal hopes ahead of Nagano. ``This result will add more pressure going into Nagano,'' said Kimura. "But as the pressure has increased so has my confidence and my skiing has improved.
``It just means I have to get better in these final weeks instead of saying I will get better.''
Tomba, fresh from his 49th career win in Schladming, had posted the second best time in the opening leg and looked poised to challenge for his 50th career win.
But the Italian's bid came to a sudden halt early in the second run when he caught a ski tip on a gate and stumbled off the course.
``The first layout was bad,'' complained Tomba. ``The course was full of ice pellets and it made it look like the top guys couldn't ski.''
The course was tough on several top technicians, particularly the Norwegians, with world champion Tom Stiansen, 1992 Olympic champion Finn Christian Jagge and l993 world champion Kjetil Andre Aamodt all spinning out in the opening run.
World Cup slalom champion Thomas Sykora of Austria also took a tumble.
On Monday the Swiss resort hosts the second of back-to-back slaloms.
But Maier has already accomplished what he came for -- winning the combined and adding 100 points to his commanding lead in the overall standings.
The former-bricklayer has dominated the men's circuit this season, reaching the podium 15 times in 19 events and recording victories in every discipline except the slalom.
Looking to become the first Austrian man since Karl Schranz in 1970 to claim the overall title, Maier tops the
rankings with 1,405 points, almost double that of compatriot Andreas Schifferer, his nearest challenger on 782.
Men's 5th Slalom, 18.01.1998
Rank Name Nat. Total
 1 STANGASSINGER Thomas  AUT   1:38.12
 2 BJORNSSON Kristinn  ISL   1:38.91
 3 KIMURA Kiminobu  JPN   1:38.92
 4 BURAAS Hans-Petter  NOR   1:39.30
 5 KOSIR Jure  SLO   1:39.46
 6 VOGL Alois  GER   1:39.64
 7 FURUSETH Ole Christian  NOR   1:39.88
 8 CHENAL Joel  FRA   1:39.95
 9 AMIEZ Sebastien  FRA   1:40.11
 10 MAIER Hermann  AUT   1:40.12
 11 ALBRECHT Kilian  AUT   1:40.17
 12 TESCARI Fabrizio  ITA   1:40.41
 13 BOURGEAT Pierrick  FRA   1:40.48
 14 CASANOVA Marco  SUI   1:40.75
 15 PAGE Kevin  FRA   1:40.92
 16 DIMIER Yves  FRA   1:41.15
 17 ACCOLA Paul  SUI   1:41.16
 18 PLASCHY Didier  SUI   1:41.17
 19 KERNEN Bruno Ii  SUI   1:41.47
 20 MADER Guenther  AUT   1:41.48
 21 GROSJEAN Matthew  USA   1:41.66
 22 VON GRUENIGEN Michael  SUI   1:41.86
 23 REITER Mario  AUT   1:42.15
 24 BRUGGE Jesper  SWE   1:42.21
 25 VIOLON Pierre  FRA   1:42.30

Did not start 1st run:
VOGLREITER Siegfried (AUT), SCHWARZACHER-JOYCE Paul Patrick (IRE), PEN Peter (SLO), VAITKUS Linas (LTU)

Did not finish 1st run:
ESCODA Gerard (AND), MAYER Christian (AUT), SYKORA Thomas (AUT), TRITSCHER Michael (AUT), SCHILCHEGGER Heinz (AUT), GRANDI Thomas (CAN), HAYER Stanley (CAN), HARDENBERG Arne (DAN), MARILA Mika (FIN), GRAVIER Richard (FRA), ROLLAND Eric (FRA), ERTL Andreas (GER), SPEISER Gerhard (GER), GUNNARSSON Arnor (ISL), BELFROND Matteo (ITA), GRIGOLETTO Gianluca (ITA), NANA Matteo (ITA), WEISS Angelo (ITA), ISHIOKA Takuya (JPN), JAGGE Finn Chr. (NOR), AAMODT Kjetil Andre (NOR), WYSSEN Koebi (SUI), IMBODEN Urs (SUI), KNIGHT Chip (USA), MILLER Bode (USA), KUNC Mitja (SLO), GRUBELNIK Drago (SLO)

Did not finish 2nd run:VICQUERY Simone (ITA), TOMBA Alberto (ITA), HIRASAWA Gaku (JPN), MIKLAVC Andrej (SLO)

Disqualified 1st run:RIEDER Arnold (ITA), STIANSEN Tom (NOR)

Disqualified 2nd run:
PODIVINSKY Ed (CAN), SIMOND Francois (FRA)

Did not qualify 2nd run:
EBERHARTER Stephan (AUT), FRANZ Werner (AUT), SCHIFFERER Andreas (AUT), PALANDER Kalle (FIN), LLORACH Gaetan (FRA), EBERLE Markus (GER), BERGAMELLI Sergio (ITA), KOLLE Arnt Georg (NOR), HANSSON Martin (SWE), NYBERG Fredrik (SWE), JAERBYN Patrik (SWE), GROS Sacha (USA), VRHOVNIK Matjaz (SLO), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO)

 Men's 2nd Combined
Rank Name Nat. Total
 1 MAIER Hermann  AUT   3:25.01
 2 KERNEN Bruno Ii  SUI   3:27.67
 3 ACCOLA Paul  SUI   3:28.74
 4 GROSJEAN Matthew  USA   3:31.13
 5 EBERHARTER Stephan  AUT   3:33.47
 6 FRANZ Werner  AUT   3:34.39
 7 JAERBYN Patrik  SWE   3:35.47
 8 SCHIFFERER Andreas  AUT   3:36.15