Adelboden: Austrians roar in Swiss slalom
With 25,000 Swiss fans hoping for better from their own, the Austrians roared out of Adelboden with Reinfried Herbst outlasting the field of a World Cup slalom for his first win of the season.
Herbst unseated teammate Manfred Pranger, the first run leader, for the win while the star of the New Year’s Moscow exhibition, German Felix Neureuther got third with a brilliant second run that moved him up from 15th.
The Austrians were poised to sweep the race with World Cup leader Benjamin Raich sitting second after the first run, but he ran into difficulties low on the course and slipped back to 11th place.
The Swiss were left without a single skier in the second run and that changed the atmosphere.
“It was a tough day for the Swiss guys and that took the volume down quite a bit,” American Ted Ligety explained. “but it was still a fun day. The snow was absolutely perfect and didn’t break up at all in the second run. Light was again a factor in the second run, but that’s what happens – it gets dark early over here.”
Ligety and Bode Miller finished 15th and 16th respectively, Ligety dropping from a first run placing of eighth and Miller from fourth. Jimmy Cochran got his first points of the season in 26th. The Canadians had Julien Cousineau in 23rd and Patrick Biggs in 24th.
“Ted was shot out of the flush and lost a ton of speed,” said Ligety’s coach Sasha Rearick. “He needed to stay on it down the entire course and he didn’t do that. … If you were the least bit defensive in your skiing, you were out of it.”
For Miller the result was disappointing considering where he sat after the first run, but just getting a finish was important. After placing second in the opening slalom he had skied out at Alta Badia and then was disqualified at Zagreb because his boots were a fraction too high.
Herbst was ready to celebrate. The highlight of his career is likely to always be the silver medal he gained in the 2006 Olympics after barely making the team. He liked the way that felt, and this result felt just as good.
“I feel as good as I did when I got the silver medal in Turin,” he told reporters. “I never stopped believing in myself and it’s great to be back on the podium in such a prestigious place as Adelboden, in front of so many great skiers.”
Among those he was in front of was slalom leader Jean-Baptise Grange who has looked invincible in the discipline, especially after beating Ivica Kostelic in his home event at Zagreb a week ago.
“Some people seem to think that I should win every slalom I enter but I never believed it was possible,” Grange told Reuters. “Ninth is 30 points, I’m not leaving here empty-handed.”
It was the Swiss, the homestanding proud Swiss, who left their own event empty-handed. For the season the Swiss men have collected 73 World Cup points in slalom and 50 of that came from Silvan Zurbriggen’s fourth place finish in the opener in November.
The SCOOP
By Hank McKee
Equipment
Men’s Slalom, Adelboden, Switzerland, Jan. 11, 2009
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Herbst, Blizzard/Tecnica/Marker
2 Pranger, Volkl/Tecnia/Marker
3 Neureuther, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Myhrer, Nordica/Nordica/
5 Moelgg, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
6 Hirscher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7 Hargin, Nordica/Nordica
7 Matt, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
9 Grange, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
10 Rocca, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
Men’s slalom, Adelboden, Switzerland, Jan. 11, 2009. … It is the 17th race of the men’s 38 race World Cup schedule and the 46th Cup race held at Adelboden. … but just the seventh slalom. … slaloms being added to the program in 2000.
It is the fourth career World Cup win for Reinfried Herbst. … All of them in slalom. … It is his first win of the season, his most recent previous coming at World Cup finals last March in Bormio. … His only other result this season was seventh in slalom at Zagreb. … He is the fifth Austrian to record a win this season.
It is the eighth career World Cup podium for Manfred Pranger. … All in slalom. … It is his first since 2005 when he won both Kitzbuehel and Schladming. … It is his third scoring result of the season and his first trip to the top 10 in more than a year.
It is the fifth career World Cup podium for Felix Neureuther. … All in slalom. … He has never won a Cup slalom. … It is his third scoring result of the season but his first better than 20th.
It is the 11th scoring result of the season for Ted Ligety and his second best slalom result of the season. … It is the second slalom finish of the season for Bode Miller. … He has scored in nine of the 17 races held this season. … It is the second scoring result of the season for Julien Cousineau. … His first in slalom. … It is his first slalom score since 2004. … It is the 11th career slalom result for Patrick Biggs. … His second of the season having placed 21st at Alta Badia. … It is the 19th career scoring result for Jimmy Cochran. … His first of the season. … It is the second scoring result of the season for Michael Janyk. … He lost his ski pole in the first run and ran over it twice enoute to qualifying.
Raich maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 557-507 for Jean-Baptiste Grange (ninth in race). … Aksel Lund Svindal (did not qualify) is third overall with 470pts. … Ligety is the top American in tenth with 327pts. … Miller is 11th at 305. … Grange maintains the lead of the slalom standings 309-245 over Ivica Kostelic (13th in race) with Manfred Moelgg (fifth in race) in third at 140. … Herbst moves to fourth with 136. … Miller is the top North American on the slalom list in 10th with 95pts.
1 | 1 | 50605 | HERBST Reinfried | 1978 | AUT | 50.12 | 52.83 | 1:42.95 | 0.00 |
2 | 20 | 50624 | PRANGER Manfred | 1978 | AUT | 49.14 | 53.99 | 1:43.13 | 1.05 |
3 | 13 | 201702 | NEUREUTHER Felix | 1984 | GER | 50.37 | 52.90 | 1:43.27 | 1.86 |
4 | 15 | 501017 | MYHRER Andre | 1983 | SWE | 50.43 | 52.86 | 1:43.29 | 1.98 |
5 | 5 | 292491 | MOELGG Manfred | 1982 | ITA | 49.91 | 53.42 | 1:43.33 | 2.21 |
6 | 19 | 53831 | HIRSCHER Marcel | 1989 | AUT | 49.79 | 53.72 | 1:43.51 | 3.26 |
7 | 25 | 501111 | HARGIN Mattias | 1985 | SWE | 51.07 | 52.51 | 1:43.58 | 3.67 |
7 | 7 | 50707 | MATT Mario | 1979 | AUT | 50.36 | 53.22 | 1:43.58 | 3.67 |
9 | 2 | 192665 | GRANGE Jean-Baptiste | 1984 | FRA | 50.22 | 53.37 | 1:43.59 | 3.73 |
10 | 10 | 290478 | ROCCA Giorgio | 1975 | ITA | 50.08 | 53.54 | 1:43.62 | 3.90 |
11 | 6 | 50625 | RAICH Benjamin | 1978 | AUT | 49.48 | 54.20 | 1:43.68 | 4.25 |
12 | 8 | 290732 | THALER Patrick | 1978 | ITA | 50.34 | 53.35 | 1:43.69 | 4.31 |
13 | 4 | 380260 | KOSTELIC Ivica | 1979 | CRO | 49.77 | 54.06 | 1:43.83 | 5.13 |
14 | 23 | 500656 | LARSSON Markus | 1979 | SWE | 50.47 | 53.41 | 1:43.88 | 5.42 |
15 | 11 | 534562 | LIGETY Ted | 1984 | USA | 49.98 | 54.08 | 1:44.06 | 6.47 |
16 | 16 | 532431 | MILLER Bode | 1977 | USA | 49.65 | 54.43 | 1:44.08 | 6.59 |
17 | 3 | 191459 | LIZEROUX Julien | 1979 | FRA | 49.64 | 54.47 | 1:44.11 | 6.76 |
18 | 9 | 291145 | DEVILLE Cristian | 1981 | ITA | 50.67 | 53.51 | 1:44.18 | 7.17 |
19 | 37 | 301709 | YUASA Naoki | 1983 | JPN | 50.81 | 53.53 | 1:44.34 | 8.10 |
20 | 43 | 560355 | VALENCIC Mitja | 1978 | SLO | 50.45 | 53.91 | 1:44.36 | 8.22 |
21 | 22 | 500499 | BROLENIUS Johan | 1977 | SWE | 50.91 | 53.47 | 1:44.38 | 8.33 |
22 | 54 | 192504 | MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas | 1984 | FRA | 50.74 | 53.94 | 1:44.68 | 10.08 |
23 | 41 | 102239 | COUSINEAU Julien | 1981 | CAN | 50.83 | 53.94 | 1:44.77 | 10.61 |
24 | 34 | 102456 | BIGGS Patrick | 1982 | CAN | 50.77 | 54.01 | 1:44.78 | 10.67 |
25 | 12 | 560425 | VAJDIC Bernard | 1980 | SLO | 50.70 | 54.18 | 1:44.88 | 11.25 |
26 | 36 | 534040 | COCHRAN Jimmy | 1981 | USA | 51.09 | 54.06 | 1:45.15 | 12.82 |
27 | 50 | 910000 | IMBODEN Urs | 1975 | MDA | 50.82 | 54.81 | 1:45.63 | 15.62 |
28 | 33 | 102435 | JANYK Michael | 1982 | CAN | 51.02 | 56.61 | 1:47.63 | 27.28 |
Did not finish 1st run: SANDELL Marcus (FIN), MYHRE Lars Elton (NOR), CAVIEZEL Mauro (SUI), OLSSON Matts (SWE), SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), TISSOT Maxime (FRA), DOPFER Fritz (GER), NORDH Fredrik (SWE), STEHLE Dominik (GER), GEORGIEV Stefan (BUL), LAHDENPERAE Anton (SWE), RAINER Niklas (SWE), BRENNER Hannes (AUT), JANSRUD Kjetil (NOR), PAQUIN Pierre (FRA), LEINO Jukka (FIN), ANDERSSON Magnus (SWE), STUTZ Paul (CAN), ANSELMET Alexandre (FRA), VILETTA Sandro (SUI), ALBRECHT Kilian (BUL), BECHTER Patrick (AUT), JITLOFF Tim (USA), FILL Peter (ITA), RAZZOLI Giuliano (ITA), GRANDI Thomas (CAN), SASAKI Akira (JPN), ALBRECHT Daniel (SUI)
Did not finish 2nd run: HOERL Wolfgang (AUT), BYGGMARK Jens (SWE)
Disqualified 1st run: KELLEY Tim (USA)
Did not qualify 1st run: OHKOSHI Ryuunosuke (JPN), BJOERGVINSSON Bjoergvin (ISL), SAMSAL Dalibor (CRO), HOROSHILOV Alexandr (RUS), SKUBE Matic (SLO), OMMINGER Andreas (AUT), VRABLIK Martin (CZE), FANARA Thomas (FRA), MARSHALL Cody (USA), KRYZL Krystof (CZE), KOGLER Stefan (GER), SVINDAL Aksel Lund (NOR), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), GINI Marc (SUI), ZURBRIGGEN Silvan (SUI), DRAGSIC Mitja (SLO)