Wiberg enjoys change of luck

Swedish skier Pernilla Wiberg toasted the new year with her first win in two years in a World Cup slalom yesterday.

Lying ninth after the first run, the 1992 Olympic giant slalom champion charged down a rutted piste that did the later skiers no favours to clock a fastest second leg of 57.55 seconds and post a winning aggregate of one minute 54.88 seconds.

"It feels great to be back at the top after two years of bad luck," the beaming 28-year-old said. "Conditions were heavy and I didn't expect to win, especially because the difference after the first run was too big."

Germany's Hilde Gerg, the first-leg leader with an advantage of 1.59 seconds over Wiberg, lost time skiing second last and settled for second in 1:55.17.

Gerg, the Olympic champion in Nagano last year, won a super-G on Saturday. "It's an extraordinary entrance into the year. At the beginning of the season I didn't expect such successes," the 23-year-old German said.

Her second place yesterday moved her second in the overall standings, overtaking fellow-German Martina Ertl to rank behind leader Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria, though 280 points adrift.

It also denied Sweden a clean sweep of the top three places after Ylva Nowen came third in 1:55.37 ahead of 17-year-old Anja Paerson in fourth.

The first five slaloms of the season have been won by as many racers - Slovene Urska Hrovat, Paerson, Swiss Karin Roten, American Kristina Koznick and Wiberg.

Roten fell foul of the bad conditions - dense fog and warm temperatures played havoc with the piste - and skied out in the second leg.

Koznick, slalom winner in Semmering, Austria, last week, was second after the first leg but a hell-for-leather second run turned out disastrously and she plunged to ninth.

But the day belonged to Wiberg. The victory in Maribor, Slovenia's second-largest city, was her first since March, 1997, when she won the downhill and slalom in Vail.

Wiberg, a former overall World Cup champion and on the circuit since March 1990, won the slalom in Maribor two years ago but has been hampered by injuries for the last two years.

The Swede had hinted at a possible victory here when she placed third in the slalom in Semmering. "This win is great for my confidence looking ahead to the world championships in Vail. It will be hard to beat Alexandra Meissnitzer in the World Cup but I want to fight for more gold medals at Vail," Wiberg said.

Maribor, blighted by fog during the three-day event, proved lucky for another World Cup veteran. Austrian Anita Wachter won her second giant slalom of the week here after pipping Meissnitzer on home soil in Semmering.