Skiing: Wachter in spectacular form: Austrian woman leaves rivals standing

ANITA WACHTER, the holder of the overall World Cup, made a spectacular start to the women's alpine season yesterday when she won the opening giant slalom on the Rettenbach glacier at Solden, Austria, by 2.63sec.

No one could get near the Austrian's aggregate time of 2min 14.57sec. The French challenge stood up best. Sophie Lefranc, in only her second season on the circuit, clocked 2:17.20 to take second place and Carole Merle, holder of the giant slalom World Cup, was third in 2:17.51.

Franck Piccard won the men's giant slalom for France at the same venue on Saturday. Sweden's Fredrik Nyberg was second and Kjetil- Andre Aamodt, of Norway, third.