Skiing: Compagnoni maintains her winning run

Deborah Compagnoni maintained her winning sequence at Val d'Isere yesterday, while Katja Seizinger lost hers. Having been in fourth place after the first run, Compagnoni rallied to win her eighth giant slalom in succession.

Seizinger had led Compagnoni by 0.65sec, despite injuring her hand. Shortly after the midway point of the second run - where she was still leading by nearly half a second - Seizinger caught a gate, went off balance and skied off the course. It brought to an end the German's sequence of six successive wins.

Compagnoni won in a time of 2min 18.83sec for the two runs. The Italian's second run was 1:09.66, almost half a second better than the rest of the field.

A men's World Cup downhill race in Val Gardena yesterday was abandoned because of thick fog. The race, originally to have been staged in Val d'Isere in France last Saturday but cancelled for the same reason, was called off after 12 competitors had completed their runs.