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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow
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France's Ruby takes snowboading giant slalom gold
 Karine Ruby |
9:30- Start
Snowboarder Karine Ruby of France lived up to her reputation as the odds-on favorite Tuesday, cruising to the gold medal in the Nagano Olympic women's giant slalom event.
Ruby, the 1996 world champion and three-time World Cup titlist, took a commanding 1.95-second lead in the 38-gate first run and breezed to victory with a two-run aggregate of 2 minutes, 17.34 seconds.
''I had to go down safely, but not too slow. That was difficult to deal with,'' Ruby said of her cautious second ride which lagged nearly 2 seconds behind the top performer of that round.
Heidi Renoth of Germany, fifth after the first leg, clocked the third fastest time in the second run to win silver in 2:19.17 while Austrian Brigitte Koeck took bronze in 2:19.42.
Ruby became the first woman to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal by winning the giant slalom event which had been postponed from the previous day on account of the bad weather wrapping the Mt. Yakebitai course in Shiga Kogen
The 20-year-old student from Chamonix, who failed to defend her title at last year's world championship, won six consecutive World Cup events earlier this season.
Reigning world champion Sondra Van Ert of the United States ended up in 12th place. Shinobu Ueshima of host Japan was 15th.
Snowboard made its Olympic debut as a medal sport Sunday with the men's giant slalom competition. Both the men's and women's halfpipe events will be held Thursday. (Kyodo News)
Results of snowboard women's giant slalom after the second run Tuesday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at Mt. Yakebitai, Yamanouchi, Nagano Prefecture:
1. Karine Ruby, France 2 minutes, 17.34 seconds (first run 1:09.33, second run 1:08.01)
2. Heidi Renoth, Germany 2:19.17 (1:11.92, 1:07.25)
3. Brigitte Koeck, Austria 2:19.42 (1:13.01, 1:06.41)
4. Lidia Trettel, Italy 2:19.71 (1:11.68, 1:08.03)
5. Ursula Fingerlos, Austria 2:20.36 (1:12.37, 1:07.99)
6. Marion Posch, Italy 2:21.34 (1:13.32, 1:08.02)
7. Dagmar Mair Unter Der Eggen, Italy 2:22.42 (1:13.35, 1:09.07)
8. Isabell Zedlacher, Austria 2:22.92 (1:11.89, 1:11.03)
9. Sandra Farmand, Germany 2:23.10 (1:14.39, 1:08.71)
10. Marie Birkl, Sweden 2:23.91 (1:15.99, 1:07.92)
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15. Shinobu Ueshima, Japan 2:28.05 (1:16.88, 1:11.17)
(End snowboard results)
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Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun