Tomba Falls, Tescari Stays Up for Victory

Italians who flocked to Sestriere to watch a countryman win the opening World Cup slalom got their wish Sunday. But it wasn’t the winner they expected.

Olympic gold medalist Alberto Tomba, expected to have little trouble before a home crowd for the second season in a row, shocked everyone by falling on his second run down the tricky, steep Kadnahar course in the Italian Alps.

Fabrizio Tescari, 23, who had never finished higher than 15th in a World Cup event, shocked everyone by winning.

Tomba, the defending World Cup champion in slalom and giant slalom, led most rivals by more than one second in the first run, but attacked in the second, even though his most dangerous competition--Paul Accola, Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Christian Jagge--had dropped out.

Tomba went on his inside ski on a steep section of the course, nearly fell and missed a gate. He climbed up, restarted and fell for good 10 seconds later.

Tescari won with a combined time of 1 minute 58.48 seconds on the longest slalom course of the circuit. That was 0.38 seconds ahead of Austrian Michael Tritscher.