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Albrecht slaloms to maiden victory

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado (AP) — Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht posted his first World Cup victory in the super-combi event on Thursday, while Jean-Baptiste Grange of France and Czech long shot Ondrej Bank made breakthrough podium finishes.

American Bode Miller, last year’s downhill winner here and one of the favorites for the super-combi, finished fourth — more than a second slower than Albrecht.

Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety of the U.S. was eighth as the expected dominance of veteran downhill racers failed to materialize.

Albrecht, who was fifth after the morning’s downhill leg, delivered a stunning slalom run to win with a combined time of two minutes and 0.26 seconds.

I was feeling good all summer, Albrecht said. I always do well at Beaver Creek so it’s a good place to start winning.

While Grange was the world championship slalom bronze medallist last season, it marked his first World Cup podium, finishing second in 2:00.93.

Known as a slalom specialist, he had finished only 37th after the downhill leg with a whopping 2.3 seconds to make up in the slalom.

It was my best downhill performance since I started skiing combined, Grange said. I saw the other ‘real’ slalom skiers had caught up well so I knew I could do it, too. But I knew I needed to ski fast and without mistakes.

It was also the first World Cup podium placing for Ondrej Bank, the Czech placing third in 2:01.23.

Miller, who has completed all five of the races he’s entered this season including three two-leg events, said he’s been having trouble getting his speed going and has failed to match his training efforts in competition.

It’s just an awesome hill to run even if you ski badly, he said. But I made a lot of mistakes in the downhill. I was down on my side twice; once on my right side, once on my left side.

I was way off the line a bunch of times. The second time I slid was bad but they both cost me quite a bit. Toward the bottom I skied OK in the downhill but still was not on line, not rolling right.

The slalom, on the other hand, was just straight bad. Yesterday I was skiing with the same guys and I was almost a second ahead of Daniel. But I just skied nowhere near that today.

This super-combi — which adds the times of the downhill and slalom — was expected to favor experienced downhillers because of the toughness and speed of the Birds of Prey downhill course and the fact there had been only a single training run for slalom specialists to get familiar with the course.

But in the end it was mainly the gate specialists who dominated.

Didier Cuche of Switzerland, who posted the fastest time in the downhill leg, finished out of the top 20.

Steven Nyman, second going into the slalom leg, crashed out on the upper third of the course.

Starting in only his sixth World Cup race, 21-year-old Andrew Weibrecht of Lake Placid finished 14th, 2.20 behind.

Benjamin Raich, one of the favorites and the 2006 overall champion, finished back in 36th, a startling 5.78 seconds off the winning pace.

Defending overall champion and tour leader Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway remains in the hospital after crashing during Tuesday’s training.

Svindal suffered facial fractures and a deep wound to his buttocks and groin and is expected to be sidelined for months.
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Bowditch back in contention in NZ

QUEENSTOWN, New Zealand (AP) — Australia’s Stephen Bowditch shot a seven-under 65 to take a one-stroke lead over compatriot Paul Sheehan after Friday’s second round of the New Zealand Open.

Diagnosed with clinical depression after losing his U.S. PGA Tour card at the end of 2006, Bowditch found his game on the rugged Hills course to top the leaderboard at 10-under 134.

Sheehan shot a 67, while New Zealand’s Michael Long was third on eight under after matching that score.

England’s Richard Finch (65), Scotland’s Peter Whiteford (68) and Australians Ewan Porter (66) and Gary Simpson (69) were tied for fourth two shots further back from Long.

Australian veteran Craig Parry, who had a share of the lead after the first round, shot a 74 to drop eight strokes back.

One of the rounds of the day came from 71-year-old New Zealander Bob Charles, the first left-hander to win a major when he captured the 1963 British Open.

Charles shot a 68, bettering his age by three strokes, and said: I almost felt 30 years younger out there today. The adrenaline starts pumping with all the competition.

Charles, who won the 1954 title as an amateur and as a professional in 1966, 1970 and 1973, eagled the first hole and had five birdies, a bogey and a double bogey.

It left him one-under for the tournament near Queenstown in the South Island, nine strokes behind Bowditch and well inside the cut line.

Bowditch had six birdies on the back nine, including four in a row.

I’ve been practicing good and doing everything I need to do to compete at a high level but haven’t been able to put it on the golf course, he said.

The last couple of days I just went out there and had fun, still put in all the work but played like I didn’t care to a certain degree.

Bowditch finished in the top 15 on the Nationwide Tour money list in 2005, graduating to the PGA Tour. But he had a terrible year in 2006 and lost his card.

This year, he played five PGA Tour events on sponsor exemptions, missed the cut in four and withdrew from the fifth.

He played mostly on the second-tier Nationwide Tour, where his best finish was a tie for 19th in 23 tournaments. He missed the cut in 12, was disqualified once and withdrew from another.
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Morgan Stanley’s Cruz the latest Wall Street chief shown the door

NEW YORK (AP) — Another high-powered Wall Street executive has been swept away by the continuing turmoil in the credit markets.

The latest to go is Zoe Cruz, the co-president at Morgan Stanley and one of the most powerful women in the financial world. Her ouster follows the recent exits of Stan O’Neal from Merrill Lynch and Citigroup’s Charles Prince.

Cruz’s departure comes after word that Morgan Stanley was taking a 3.7 billion dollar write-down in fourth-quarter losses due to the current credit and housing market crunches.

One senior analyst likens the current rolling of executive heads to captains going down with their ship, whether they are rising stars or not.

Cruz had been with Morgan Stanley for the past 25 years, and rose to her current title after former chief executive Philip Purcell promoted her in a move to consolidate power.

There had been expectations that John Mack, the current CEO, would at some point place someone else in the job.

He did that on Thursday, naming Walid A. Chammah and James P. Gorman as co-presidents. Chammah, 53, was named global head of investment banking in July, while Gorman, 49, runs the global wealth management group. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Jet crashes; no survivors found

(CNN) — A Turkish jetliner with 56 people onboard crashed in southern Turkey early Friday as the pilot was preparing to land in Isparta, according to Atlasjet’s chief executive officer.

Search groups have not seen any survivors as of now, said Atlasjet CEO Tuncay Doganer. We are hopeful to find some survivors.

The plane went down in a mountainous region near the village of Keciborlu, Doganer said.

Video from the crash site shows the fuselage of the plane largely intact but broken into at least three pieces, with the tail and cockpit separated from the body of the aircraft. There appeared to be no evidence of a fire.

The plane, which was carrying 49 passengers and seven crew, was en route from Istanbul to Isparta when the pilot radioed the tower, saying he was starting his descent. The flight never arrived at the Isparta airport, disappearing around 2 a.m. (7 p.m. ET Thursday).

Atlasjet leased the plane from Worldfocus Airlines, whose pilots were flying it, Doganer said. E-mail to a friend

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Australia PM eyes Iraq pullout

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Australia’s prime minister-elect said Friday he would pull his country’s combat troops out of Iraq by mid-2008, setting a timetable for the withdrawal he had promised.

The move is likely to disappoint the U.S. government, which has counted Australia as among few staunch allies in the unpopular war in Iraq.

Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd’s victory ended more than 11 years of conservative rule under John Howard, who had strong personal ties with U.S. President George W. Bush.

The combat force in Iraq we would have home by around about the middle of next year, Rudd was quoted by Australian Associated Press as telling a radio interviewer in Melbourne.

Rudd went to the polls with a policy of withdrawing Australia’s 550 combat forces in Iraq, while leaving several hundred support troops. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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