Garmisch: Matt wins World Cup slalom

World champion Mario Matt of Austria won a men's slalom Sunday for his seventh World Cup victory.

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — World champion Mario Matt of Austria won a men's slalom Sunday for his seventh World Cup victory.
    Matt led after the first run by more than half a second and protected his margin in the second heat to win ahead of Germany's Felix Neureuther. Matt had a combined time of 1 minute, 35.66 seconds.
    Neureuther clocked 1:36.07 on his home slope and Benjamin Raich of Austria was third in 1:36.97.
    Raich moved closer to overall World Cup leader Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and stayed second in the slalom standings, ahead of Matt and behind Jens Byggmark of Sweden.
    Neureuther was also second behind Matt after the first run at the World Championship in Are, Sweden, earlier this month, but then fell in the second heat.
    This time, Neureuther withstood the pressure in front of home fans on the Gudiberg hill where his father Christian was the last German to win a World Cup slalom in this southern German resort 33 years ago.  
    Christian said he didn't have the nerves to watch his son disappearing ''somewhere in the mountains,'' but Felix's mother Rosi Mittermaier, an Olympic champion, was at the finish line.
    ''I tried to block out everything and just think of my race,'' Neureuther said. ''Everything was reminding me of Are, being second after the first run, the same course setter for the second.''
    ''It wasn't that simple. With all the fans waiting for me, it was a special situation. But it all worked out.''
    Matt led after the first run by more than half a second and protected his margin in the second heat to score his seventh World Cup victory and sixth in a slalom. The Austrian has finished in the top three in his last six slalom races. He also won a super combi this season in Wengen, Switzerland.
    ''It wasn't easy to race here. The way the second run was set made it very difficult, you had to change directions very swiftly,'' Matt said. ''I had a big lead from the first run and it didn't make sense to attack the course too much.''
    Raich clocked the fastest second run to jump from seventh to third.
    Manfred Moelgg of Italy, who won the silver medal behind Matt at the World Championship, finished fifth. Bronze medalist Jean-Baptiste Grange of France was eighth.
    Among the skiers who failed to finish the first run were Bode Miller and Jimmy Cochran of the United States and Austrians Manfred Pranger and Rainer Schoenfelder.
    Byggmark finished 12th to retain the lead in downhill standings.
    Svindal was a distant 20th.
    The last time Garmisch hosted a World Cup slalom race was 12 years ago when the winner was Alberto Tomba.

Tough day for U.S. men
    Cochran and Miller — who is battling a sore neck suffered during downhill inspection when he jumped to get out of someone's way — went off course midway through their run. Ted Ligety struggled while Cody Marshall — in his first World Cup — was 39th in the first run after starting 64th while Roger Brown also finished out of the top 30.
    "It was a very tough day, but we had a meeting with the guys after the race," SL/GS head coach Mike Morin said, "and there's no panic. We're not going to focus on evaluating the negatives. We all believe we're doing the right things, and there's a general feeling all the guys are so close to getting back to scoring points and being on the podium and all …
    "It's not pretty to watch anyone struggle, tough to go through it, but there's no lack of effort, nobody putting in a half an effort, and we'll turn it around," he said. "Kranjska Gora [Slovenia — the next World Cup stop] has been a good hill for us — Jimmy's had his best day there, Bode's won twice there, Ted got his first World Cup points there, so they're feeling upbeat leaving here and heading to a hill where we've had good success."
    The men run a giant slalom Saturday in Kranjska Gora and a slalom Sunday.

THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment

Men's Slalom, Garmisch, Germany, Feb. 25, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Matt, Fischer/Nordica/Fischer
2 Neureuther, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Janyk, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
6 Palander, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
7 Berthod, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8 Grange, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9 Larsson, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10 Deville, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker

Men's slalom, Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, Feb. 25, 2007. … It is the 27th race of the men's 38-race World Cup schedule. … It is the eighth of 10 scheduled slaloms.
    It is the seventh victory of Mario Matt's World Cup career, sixth in slalom. … It is his third win of the season, but first in World Cup slalom. … He won the World Championship gold medal in slalom and also won a World Cup combined at Wengen. … He has been second in two slaloms and third in two others on World Cup this season. … His first win came in 2000 (Kitzbuehel SL Jan. 23) but he has been hampered by injury including a fractured shoulder. … No Austrian had previously won a slalom at Garmisch.
    It is a career best result for Felix Neureuther. … He had been third in a slalom at Beaver Creek Dec. 3. … Christian Neureuther, his father, won the first World Cup slalom held at Garmisch.
    It is the 62nd career World Cup podium for Benjamin Raich. … His 32nd in slalom. … It is his fifth World Cup podium of the season … fourth in slalom. … He won the Cup slalom title in 2001 and 2005.
    Michael Janyk matches his second best career result from March 10, 2006 at Shigakogen. … His one better result is second at Beaver Creek Dec. 3. … He has been in the top 10 of six slaloms this season, including World Championships. … It is the third best result of the season for Thomas Grandi. … He has been 14th three times this season. … His best result was fifth, also at Beaver Creek's slalom.
    Aksel Lund Svindal (20th in race) maintains the lead in the World Cup overall standings 818-765 over Raich. … Didier Cuche (did not race) is third at 748. … Bode Miller (DNF) is fourth at 643. … Jens Byggmark (12th in race) holds the slalom lead over Raich 445-425. … Matt closes in third to 420 with two slaloms remaining on the schedule. … Michael Janyk at seventh on the list at 224 is the top North American. … Two skiers gain their first points of the season, Naoki Yuasa and Sandro Viletta. … Winning margin was .41. … Top two were within the same second. … Top nine within two seconds.

Garmisch men's World Cup slalom results

Did not start 1st run:
BAXTER Alain (GBR)

Did not finish 1st run:
WANNINGER Christian (GER), STEHLE Dominik (GER), BYLUND Peter (SWE), BURAAS Hans-Petter (NOR), FANARA Thomas (FRA), NORDH Fredrik (SWE), BIGGS Patrick (CAN), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO), ANDERSSON Oscar (SWE), MILLER Bode (USA), COCHRAN Jimmy (USA), VOGL Alois (GER), HANSSON Martin (SWE), SCHOENFELDER Rainer (AUT), PRANGER Manfred (AUT)

Did not finish 2nd run:
RAZZOLI Giuliano (ITA)

Did not qualify 1st run:
SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), SPORN Andrej (SLO), BROWN Roger G P (USA), MYHRE Lars Elton (NOR), ROY Jean-Philippe (CAN), MARSHALL Cody B (USA), BAUMANN Romed (AUT), SEMPLE Ryan (CAN), MORETTI Luca (ITA), KAUKONIEMI Tuukka (FIN), IMBODEN Urs (MDA), BAXTER Noel (GBR), VRABLIK Martin (CZE), ALBRECHT Kilian (BUL), LEINO Jukka (FIN), KARLSEN Truls Ove (NOR), GRUBELNIK Drago (SLO), DRAGSIC Mitja (SLO), TREJBAL Filip (CZE), STUTZ Paul (CAN), BANK Ondrej (CZE), ANSELMET Alexandre (FRA), LAHDENPERAE Anton (SWE), HARGIN Mattias (SWE), SASAKI Akira (JPN), KOSTELIC Ivica (CRO), ZURBRIGGEN Silvan (SUI), LIGETY Ted (USA)

World Cup slalom standings (after 8 races)
1. Jens Byggmark, Sweden, 445.
2. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 425.
3. Mario Matt, Austria, 420.
4. Markus Larsson, Sweden, 300.
5. Felix Neureuther, Germany, 264.
6. Marc Berthod, Switzerland, 236.
7. Michael Janyk, Canada, 224.
8. Kalle Palander, Finland, 223.
9. Manfred Moelgg, Italy, 214.
10. Giorgio Rocca, Italy, 213.
11. Andre Myhrer, Sweden, 168.
12. Jean-Baptiste Grange, France, 152.
13. Ted Ligety, United States, 146.
14. Manfred Pranger, Austria, 126.
15. Silvan Zurbriggen, Switzerland, 125.

World Cup overall standings (after 27 races)
1. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 818 points.
2. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 765.
3. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 748.
4. Bode Miller, United States, 643.
5. Peter Fill, Italy, 589.
6. Mario Matt, Austria, 540.
7. Kalle Palander, Finland, 469.
8. Jens Byggmark, Sweden, 461.
9. Marco Buechel, Liechtenstein, 457.
10. Marc Berthod, Switzerland, 431.
11. Didier Defago, Switzerland, 415.
12. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 412.
13. Erik Guay, Canada, 389.
14. Ted Ligety, United States, 384.
15. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 374.