Hirscher downs Neureuther and Yuasa for Madonna win

By Published On: December 18th, 2012Comments Off on Hirscher downs Neureuther and Yuasa for Madonna win

With the Madonna di Campiglio flood lights reflecting off the icy, and steep surface of the Canalone Miramonti slope 76 of the world’s fastest slalom skiers did battle Tuesday (Dec. 18). After the first heat there wasn’t much doubt the winner was going to come from the final five skiers of the second run. To everyone’s surprise, it was the bittersweet result of the fifth starter of the second run, the 26th finisher from the first that put the most pressure on everyone else, damaging himself in the process.

It was Japan’s Noaki Yuasa, on Hart skis and reportedly with a herniated disc that put the hurt on the field, – and himself – knifing down the tricky second course for a massive early lead that held up through 24 skiers. He collapsed in the finish area in obvious pain and limped badly as he made his way to the awards ceremony. Felix Neureuther, the second fastest qualifier, finally knocked the injured Japanese racer down the finish order. The German skiing comfortably and smoothly, milked his two second first run margin to the finish and pushed him down the finish order by .61.

Neureuther’s conservative run, however, left the door wide open for first course winner Marcel Hirscher, and he pounced on the opportunity.

“Neureuther had an awesome run, I heard it,” said Hirscher, referring to the crowd of thousand’s punctuation of the German’s run. “I went more than 100 percent, so you know it’s maybe tougher to speak as to ski.”

His run was magnificent to behold. It was full of risk as Hirscher charged every gate he could, arcing turns and fighting for time. He wound up adding to his first run margin and took the win by 1.61 seconds. He was the only man who beat Yuasa’s second run time.

Neureuther got second and Yuasa third. Defending Cup slalom champ Andre Myhrer was fourth and the top finisher for hosting Italy was Manfred Moelgg in fifth.

The icy piste caused plenty of issues for the racers with five skiers going out in the second run and 24 in the first. Still others struggled mightily and failed to qualify for the second run including highly regarded Stefano Gross, Mario Matt and Jens Byggmark.

The only North American to make a second run was Ted Ligety who continues to show better slalom skiing, finishing ninth.

Gepa photo

The SCOOP
by Hank McKee
Men’s World Cup slalom, Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, Dec. 18, 2012
Equipment

Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Hirscher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Neureuther, Nordica/Nordica/
3 Yuasa, Hart/Dolomite/Look
4 Myhrer, Nordica/Nordica/
5 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
6 Vogel, Stoeckli/Nordica/Tyrolia
7 Herbst, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Haugen, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9 Ligety, Head/Head/Head
10 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer

Men’s World Cup slalom, Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, Dec. 18, 2012. … It is the 24th of 73 races on the 2012-13 World Cup schedule. … the 13th of 36 on the men’s schedule. … And the third of 11 scheduled slaloms, including two city event parallels. … The next men’s slalom is at Zagreb, Croatia, Jan. 6. … It is the 54th Cup race hosted at Madonna, the 34th slalom. … Madonna hosted a men’s slalom in the first year of World Cup competition (1967). … Madonna has not hosted a Cup race since December of 2005.

It is the 14th career World Cup win for Marcel Hirscher. …His seventh in slalom. … It is his second victory of the season and first in slalom. … It is his first at Madonna di Campiglio. … He now has as many Cup slalom wins as Armin Bittner and Finn Christian Jagge. … It is the third win of the season for Austria. … second for an Austrian male.

It is the 16th career World Cup podium for Felix Neureuther. … all save two of them in slalom. … It is his second slalom podium of the season, both in second place. … It is the seventh podium of the season for Germany. … He is one placing better than his father’s best at Madonna.

It is the first career World Cup podium for Naoki Yuasa. … his previous best is fifth scored twice, once at Bansko and once at Schladming. … He is the fifth Japanese to earn a World Cup podium placing and the first since 2006.

It is the 25th career World Cup slalom top 10 for Ted Ligety. … it is his best of three slalom scoring results this season. … Former DU racer Leif Kristiansen Haugen tallied his first career top 10.

Aksel Lund Svindal (did not race) holds the lead of the World Cup overall standings 614-560 over Hirscher. … Ligety is third with 537pts. … Erik Guay is the top Canadian in 12th with 182pts. … Hirscher leads the slalom standings 240-200 for Andre Myhrer (fourth in race). … Ligety is tenth with 71pts. … Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 2165-1539 for Italy. … France is third with 1152pts. … The US is fifth with 894 and Canada eighth with 384pts.

Madonna di Campiglio (ITA)
FIS World Cup
Men’s Slalom
Dec. 18, 2012

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  7  53831 HIRSCHER Marcel  1989  AUT   52.07  50.43  1:42.50  0.00
 2  3  201702 NEUREUTHER Felix  1984  GER   52.13  52.04  1:44.17  10.10
 3  21  301709 YUASA Naoki  1983  JPN   54.13  50.65  1:44.78  13.79
 4  5  501017 MYHRER Andre  1983  SWE   53.35  51.49  1:44.84  14.15
 5  19  292491 MOELGG Manfred  1982  ITA   52.75  52.27  1:45.02  15.24
 6  28  511174 VOGEL Markus  1984  SUI   53.16  52.02  1:45.18  16.21
 7  20  50605 HERBST Reinfried  1978  AUT   53.28  51.97  1:45.25  16.63
 8  35  421669 HAUGEN Leif Kristian  1987  NOR   53.17  52.29  1:45.46  17.90
 9  9  534562 LIGETY Ted  1984  USA   53.09  52.45  1:45.54  18.39
 10  6  380260 KOSTELIC Ivica  1979  CRO   53.88  51.82  1:45.70  19.36
 11  26  500656 LARSSON Markus  1979  SWE   53.97  51.81  1:45.78  19.84
 12  16  50625 RAICH Benjamin  1978  AUT   53.56  52.28  1:45.84  20.20
 13  18  192506 MISSILLIER Steve  1984  FRA   53.86  52.07  1:45.93  20.75
 14  32  422304 KRISTOFFERSEN Henrik  1994  NOR   53.49  52.71  1:46.20  22.38
 15  68  194207 THEOLIER Steven  1990  FRA   53.86  52.47  1:46.33  23.17
 15  17  560355 VALENCIC Mitja  1978  SLO   53.33  53.00  1:46.33  23.17
 17  8  50624 PRANGER Manfred  1978  AUT   54.09  52.30  1:46.39  23.53
 18  45  480736 KHOROSHILOV Alexander  1984  RUS   54.24  52.19  1:46.43  23.77
 18  29  150644 KRYZL Krystof  1986  CZE   53.94  52.49  1:46.43  23.77
 20  41  294890 NANI Roberto  1988  ITA   54.35  52.17  1:46.52  24.32
 21  25  192665 GRANGE Jean-Baptiste  1984  FRA   53.75  52.82  1:46.57  24.62
 22  12  202462 DOPFER Fritz  1987  GER   54.33  52.47  1:46.80  26.01
 23  31  511127 GINI Marc  1984  SUI   54.27  52.80  1:47.07  27.64
 24  23 &
nbsp;50981
HOERL Wolfgang  1983  AUT   54.02  53.59  1:47.61  30.91
 25  44  192504 MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas  1984  FRA   54.12  57.22  1:51.34  53.47
Did not start 1st run
   27  102912 SPENCE Brad  1984  CAN         
Did not qualify for 2nd run
   74  320293 KYUNG Sung-Hyun  1990  KOR         
   71  550054 ZVEJNIEKS Kristaps  1992  LAT         
   70  30149 SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier  1980  ARG         
   67  501401 SAXVALL Per  1989  SWE         
   65  193334 RIVAS Gabriel  1986  FRA         
   63  511983 AERNI Luca  1993  SUI         
   61  320266 JUNG Dong-Hyun  1988  KOR         
   60  50547 SCHOENFELDER Rainer  1977  AUT         
   59  561148 SKUBE Matic  1988  SLO         
   56  511902 ZENHAEUSERN Ramon  1992  SUI         
   55  380290 SAMSAL Dalibor  1985  CRO         
   51  150594 TREJBAL Filip  1985  CZE         
   49  102727 STUTZ Paul  1983  CAN         
   46  511908 SCHMIDIGER Reto  1992  SUI         
   40  700830 ZAMPA Adam  1990  SVK         
   39  421860 NORDBOTTEN Jonathan  1989  NOR         
   37  180703 PALONIEMI Santeri  1993  FIN         
   36  421849 JOHANSEN Truls  1989  NOR         
   11  501101 BYGGMARK Jens  1985  SWE         
   4  50707 MATT Mario  1979  AUT         
   1  293797 GROSS Stefano  1986  ITA         
Did not finish 2nd run
   48  201896 STEHLE Dominik  1986  GER         
   34  202437 LUITZ Stefan  1992  GER         
   24  501223 BAECK Axel  1987  SWE         
   10  293098 RAZZOLI Giuliano  1984  ITA         
   2  291145 DEVILLE Cristian  1981  ITA         
Did not finish 1st run
   76  680041 ABRAMASHVILI Iason  1988  GEO         
   75  430633 JASICZEK Michal  1994  POL         
   73  40489 LAIDLAW Luke  1992  AUS         
   72  150743 BERNDT Ondrej  1988  CZE         
   69  561117 KUERNER Miha  1987  SLO         
   66  422082 SOLEVAAG Sebastian-Foss  1991  NOR         
   64  60015 MOLLIN Bart  1981  BEL         
   62  193347 TISSOT Maxime  1986  FRA         
   58  501116 LAHDENPERAE Anton  1985  SWE         
   57  220689 RYDING David  1986  GBR         
   54  481148 MAYTAKOV Sergei  1990  RUS         
   53  102239 COUSINEAU Julien  1981  CAN         
   52  930107 GREGORAK Will  1990  USA         
   50  54063 FELLER Manuel  1992  AUT         
   47  301312 SASAKI Akira  1981  JPN         
   43  934502 ANKENY Michael  1991  USA         
   42  291318 TONETTI Riccardo  1989  ITA         
   38  193967 MUFFAT JEANDET Victor  1989  FRA         
   33  534508 CHODOUNSKY David  1984  USA         
   30  530165 BRANDENBURG Will  1987  USA         
   22  102435 JANYK Michael  1982  CAN         
   15  194364 PINTURAULT Alexis  1991  FRA         
   14  290732 THALER Patrick  1978  ITA         
   13  501111 HARGIN Mattias  1985  SWE       

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About the Author: Hank McKee

In memoriam: The veteran of the staff, McKee started with Ski Racing in 1980. Over the seasons, he covered virtually every aspect of the sport, from the pro tours to junior racing, freestyle and World Cup alpine competition. He wrote the first national stories for many U.S. team stars, and was still around to report on their retirements. “Longevity has its rewards,” he said, “but it’s a slow process.”