Seizinger seizes season's opener

Skiing

Katja Seizinger of Germany began her defence of the overall World Cup title yesterday with a victory in the season's opening race, a giant slalom in Austria. Olympic and world champion Seizinger delivered a near-perfect second run in snowy and foggy conditions to improve from second after the first descent to overall first with an aggregate time of 2 min 11.81sec. Early leader Deborah Compagnoni of Italy had trouble in the upper half of the Rettenbach piste and fell back to overall second in 2:11.93.