Austrian Mario Reiter made a 1.8-second advantage going into the combined downhill stand up for the Nagano Olympics gold medal Friday and redeemed a poor showing by Austrian downhillers in a medal race earlier in the day.

Reiter, sixth in the downhill with a time of 1 minute, 36.21 seconds on the Happo-one slopes, took the gold with a total time of 3:08.06 in his Olympic debut.

The 1997 Alpine combined world bronze medalists had posted a time of 1:31.85 in two slalom runs Tuesday.

Norwegian Lasse Kjus, who took the silver medal in the men's downhill in the morning, collected his second silver of the day in the combined with a total time of 3:08.65.

Kjus, the Olympic champion four years ago in Lillehammer, narrowed his gap with Reiter with a 1:34.99 run in the downhill.

''This is great,'' an elated Reiter said after the race, ''I will never again get a bigger advantage than 1.8 seconds. In these conditions, that was just too hard to make up.''

''Lasse did a great job, especially after winning the silver in the downhill,'' he said.

Reiter placed first in both runs of the combined slalom Tuesday, while Kjus started Friday's race in second place.

Reiter's Austrian teammate Christian Mayer took the bronze, finishing a total of 2.13 seconds behind the leader and overtook Poland's Andrzej Bachleda, who had begun Friday's race in third place.

Austria's Guenther Mader took the combined hill with a time of 1:34.83 to move from fifth place after the slalom competition into fourth.

Earlier Friday, Austria's vaunted downhill team which has been dominating the World Cup circuit was limited to a lone bronze medal by Hannes Trinkl in the men's downhill event. (Kyodo News)

Final results of Alpine skiing men's combined Friday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at Happo-one, Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture:

Downhill

1. Guenther Mader, Austria 1 minute, 34.83 seconds

2. Lasse Kjus, Norway 1:34.99

3. Christian Mayer, Austria 1:35.06

4. Erik Seletto, Italy 1:35.77

5. Ales Brezavsek, Slovenia 1:35.94

6. Mario Reiter, Austria 1:36.21

7. Alessandro Fattori, Italy 1:36.29

8. Peter Pen, Slovenia 1:36.98

9. Andrzej Bachleda, Poland 1:37.04

10. Juergen Hasler, Liechtenstein 1:37.88

11. Zourab Djidjishvili, Georgia 1:40.39

12. Thomas Grob, Chile 1:40.68

13. Rainer Grob, Chile 1:41.36

14. Paul Schwarzacher-Joyce, Ireland 1:42.81

15. Nikolay Skriabin, Ukraine 1:43.08

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Yasuyuki Takishita, Japan Did not finish

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Final standings

1. Mario Reiter, Austria 3:08.06 (slalom 1:31.85, downhill 1:36.21)

2. Lasse Kjus, Norway 3:08.65 (1:33.66, 1:34.99)

3. Christian Mayer, Austria 3:10.11 (1:35.05, 1:35.06)

4. Guenther Mader, Austria 3:10.19 (1:35.36, 1:34.83)

5. Andrzej Bachleda, Poland 3:11.53 (1:34.49, 1:37.04)

6. Alessandro Fattori, Italy 3:17.00 (1:40.71, 1:36.29)

7. Ales Brezavsek, Slovenia 3:20.09 (1:44.15, 1:35.94)

8. Peter Pen, Slovenia 3:20.81 (1:43.83, 1:36.98)

9. Juergen Hasler, Liechtenstein 3:23.15 (1:45.27, 1:37.88)

10. Erik Seletto, Italy 3:23.23 (1:47.46, 1:35.77)

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14. Zourab Djidjishvili, Georgia 3:35.65 (1:55.26, 1:40.39)