Kimura's medal hopes dimmed after only the first run as he placed 10th 1.47 seconds adrift of leader Tomas Sykora, who clocked 55.06 to take a 0.22-second lead over Hans-Petter Buraas of Norway.

Kimura, who is normally cautious on his first run and tries to make up time with a more aggressive style in the second round, attacked the gates early after the interval but lost time in a flat section.

''Before my second run I realized I had no choice but to attack, but it might have been defensive skiing on the course,'' he said. ''I regret that I couldn't show what I had.''

Kimura started sixth on the second run and drew a huge sigh from spectators, which included Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, when he crossed the finish line and his total time of 1:52.15 was already fourth.

''I made mistakes in the first half of the course. I wish I'd been more aggressive,'' he said of his first run in dense fog and sleet, which proved decisive for his performance.

Kimura went into the Nagano Games with high hopes after standing on the World Cup medals podium for the first time with a third-place finish last month. He is currently ranked fourth in the World Cup slalom standings.

Norway's Buraas turned in a superb second run for the fastest time of 54.03 over the 65-gate course at Mt. Yakebitai in Shiga Kogen highlands, turning his deficit to a comfortable victory margin of 1.33.

''I planned since I got good results in Kitzbuehl this season that I would beat my teammates and get the gold here,'' Buraas said of a personal best runner-up finish on the World Cup circuit late last month.

''In the first run I broke a tip of my ski. In the second run I just skied really fast and hoped for a medal,'' noted Buraas, who competed in Saturday's race with his hair dyed bright red.

Buraas clocked a combined time of 1:49.31 to become the only racer to ski under 1:50 and bring Norway its first Alpine skiing gold at the Nagano Games.

Fellow Norwegian Ole Christian Furuseth won the silver in 1:50.64 for his first Olympic medal in his third appearance in the Winter Games.

A shaky second run cost Sykora a gold medal and the slalom specialist settled for the bronze in 1:50.68.

World champion Tom Stiansen finished fourth, followed by Austria's Christian Mayer in fifth and defending Olympic slalom champion Thomas Stangassinger also of Austria in sixth.

Norwegians and Austrians occupied the top seven places.

Italy's Alberto Tomba, who was bidding to become the first Alpine skier who wins medals in four consecutive Winter Games, withdrew before the second run with a 1.94-second gap left to make up and will go back home empty-handed.

An Italian coach said he realized he was out of contention due to his 17th placing and his back injury sustained in a tumble in the giant slalom also prompted him to make a decision to quit.

The poor visibility in the first run victimized such medal contenders as combined gold medal winner Mario Reiter of Austria and Slovenian Jure Kosir.

During the first run, the slalom venue was hit by an earthquake that jolted a wide range of central, eastern and northern Japan with a magnitude of 5.0 on the open-ended Richter scale. But the tremor did not affect the competition. (Kyodo News)