Kostelic gets slalom win; Hirscher claims the title

By Published On: March 10th, 2013Comments Off on Kostelic gets slalom win; Hirscher claims the title

What suspense there was in the men’s World Cup slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia today (March 10) seemed to be over three skiers into the first run. With a pouring rain slowly transforming into thick, heavy flakes of snow, the first out of the start house, Alexis Pinturault, took advantage of the course preparation to put down a scintillating first run. The second man, overall and slalom standings lead Marcel Hirscher was struggling to stay in touch with Pinturault, falling behind by eight tenths when he uncharacteristically got caught out of balance and came to a virtual standstill before finishing more than two seconds behind the Frenchman.

It was the third man out of the start, German Felix Neureuther, that carried the last remaining hope of unseating Hirscher for the slalom title and the door appeared wide open to take the next to last step in that task. As he charged to put as much time as possible between he and the Austrian ace he straddled and was forced to ski out. Game over. Win, lose, or not earn a second run, Hirscher would win the slalom title.

As it turned out, two plus seconds behind Pinturault was good for eighth in the run as the course broke down dramatically. The defending slalom champ Andre Myhrer was the second fastest finisher 1.45 seconds behind. Ivica Kostelic, in third, was a full second and a half out. Four point eight earned a second run.

In the second heat, with snow abating back to rain, the huge lead proved too much for Pinturault to bear. He got caught in the back seat at the top of the steep finish pitch and could not complete the course. Hirscher made his now customary second run charge to maintain a string of slalom podiums that stretches back a full season (take out DNF’s and DSQ’s and it goes to January 2011) and the amazing Ivica Kostelic got his second win of the season since winning the Kitzbuehel combined.

“This is a wonderful feeling,” he said in the finish, “because it is not easy to stay at the top level in any sport these days and in slalom the competition is very dense.”
He said he never gave up focusing on winning despite the huge first run lead by the Frenchman. “I knew Alexis had to make a big mistake. I was focused on that.”

The win was a relief not only to Kostelic, but to the whole Croatian contingent which has all it’s eggs in his 35 year old, oft abused basket. His sister Janica gave him a heartfelt hug in the finish and looked skyward in thanks as he crossed the line in the lead.

Third also went to a 30 something skier as Mario Matt, 33, got the points as a series of top contenders failed to match their first run efforts. Stefano Gross got way off line early and went from -.12 at the start to +2.06 at the first time. Guiliano Razzoli straddled where the course transitioned to the steep closing pitch. Jens Byggmark dropped behind early, regained a lead and then finished off the pace for fourth and Andre Myhrer steadily dropped time to Kostelic on his second trip down to the umbrella shrouded finish stands for sixth place. Fifth went to Reinfried Herbst who had the second fastest time of the second run. The fastest time was recorded, as it had been in the first run, by the first man out of the start, Swiss youngster Luca Aerni who finished the day in 12th.

Mike Janyk led the North Americans in 15th place. Ted Ligety finished 18th.

The slalom crown will go to Hirscher. The win was a veteran’s reprieve.

Gepa photo

The SCOOP
by Hank McKee

Men’s World Cup slalom, Kranjska Gora Slovenia, March 10, 2013
Equipment

Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
2 Hirscher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Matt, Blizzard/Tecnica/Marker
4 Byggmark, Voelkl/Fischer/Marker
5 Herbst, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
6 Myhrer, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
7 Larsson, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8 Yuasa, Hart/Dolomite/Look
9 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
10 Dopfer, Nordica/Nordica/Marker

Men’s World Cup slalom, Kranjska Gora Slovenia, March 10, 2013. … It is the final men’s race of the regular World Cup season with four races remaining at World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide. … It is the 32nd of 36 races on the schedule with no cancellations. … The eighth of nine scheduled slaloms with two additional city event parallel events counting in the slalom standings. … It is the 78th Cup race hosted by Kranjska Gora. … the 40th slalom dating back to 1968.

It is the 26th career World Cup win for Ivica Kostelic. … His 15th in slalom. … It is his first slalom win since Jan. 15, 2012 at Wengen. … It is ten years since his last win at Kranjska Gora. … five years since his last podium at the site.

It is the 43rd career World Cup podium placing for Marcel Hirscher. … His 21st in slalom. … It is his eighth Cup podium scored at Kranjska Gora. … third in slalom. … It is his 18th podium of the season including two World Championship medal finishes (not counting the team event). … He has finished on the podium in every slalom this season, winning five including Worlds.

It is the 39th career World Cup podium placing for Mario Matt. … the 37th in slalom. … It is his fifth podium scored at Kranjska Gora, the first since 2007. … It is his fourth podium of the season including a third at World Championships. … Three of those are third place finishes plus a second at Adelboden in slalom.

Michael Janyk places in the top 15 of a World Cup for the 38th time. … the fifth time at Kranjska Gora. … It is his third Cup slalom result of the season. … It is the sixth scoring result in slalom for Ted Ligety this season.

Marcel Hirscher leads the World Cup overall standings 1375-1226 over Aksel Lund Svindal (did not race) with four races remaining. … Ligety is third overall with 922pts and cannot win the title. … Erik Guay (did not race) is the top Canadian overall in 18th place with 378pts. … Hirscher leads the slalom standings 880-616 over Felix Neureuther (DNF 1st) and cannot be beaten for the title with one race remaining. … Andre Myhrer (sixth in race) is third with 482pts. … Ligety is top American in 15th with 143pts, Janyk is top Canadian in 35th with 39pts. … Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 5627-3691 over Italy. … France is third with 2977. … The US is sixth with 1548 and Canada ninth with 896pts.

Kranjska Gora (SLO)
FIS World Cup
Men’s Slalom
March 10, 2013

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  6  380260 KOSTELIC Ivica  1979  CRO   52.30  53.51  1:45.81  0.00
 2  2  53831 HIRSCHER Marcel  1989  AUT   52.90  53.10  1:46.00  1.11
 3  7  50707 MATT Mario  1979  AUT   52.74  53.41  1:46.15  1.99
 4  11  501101 BYGGMARK Jens  1985  SWE   52.42  53.76  1:46.18  2.17
 5  19  50605 HERBST Reinfried  1978  AUT   53.42  52.96  1:46.38  3.34
 6  5  501017 MYHRER Andre  1983  SWE   52.24  54.49  1:46.73  5.39
 7  20  500656 LARSSON Markus  1979  SWE   53.74  53.34  1:47.08  7.44
 8  21  301709 YUASA Naoki  1983  JPN   52.93  54.29  1:47.22  8.26
 9  4  292491 MOELGG Manfred  1982  ITA   53.01  54.37  1:47.38  9.20
 10  10  202462 DOPFER Fritz  1987  GER   53.08  54.32  1:47.40  9.32
 11  12  290732 THALER Patrick  1978  ITA   53.26  54.37  1:47.63  10.66
 12  42  511983 AERNI Luca  1993  SUI   55.61  52.11  1:47.72  11.19
 13  9  501111 HARGIN Mattias  1985  SWE   53.72  54.09  1:47.81  11.72
 14  18  192506 MISSILLIER Steve  1984  FRA   53.22  54.77  1:47.99  12.77
 15  27  102435 JANYK Michael  1982  CAN   54.90  53.21  1:48.11  13.48
 16  40  294890 NANI Roberto  1988  ITA   55.23  53.32  1:48.55  16.06
 17  31  511127 GINI Marc  1984  SUI   54.50  54.09  1:48.59  16.29
 18  16  534562 LIGETY Ted  1984  USA   54.66  53.95  1:48.61  16.41
 19  44  291318 TONETTI Riccardo  1989  ITA   55.56  53.73  1:49.29  20.39
 20  13  293797 GROSS Stefano  1986  ITA   52.78  56.54  1:49.32  20.57
 21  35  180703 PALONIEMI Santeri  1993  FIN   55.44  53.93  1:49.37  20.86
 22  30  480736 KHOROSHILOV Alexander  1984  RUS   54.11  55.29  1:49.40  21.04
 23  34  421669 HAUGEN Leif Kristian  1987  NOR   55.41  54.08  1:49.49  21.56
 24  41  150644 KRYZL Krystof  1986  CZE   55.58  54.10  1:49.68  22.68
 25  25  422304 KRISTOFFERSEN Henrik  1994  NOR   54.26  55.58  1:49.84  23.61
 26  26  501223 BAECK Axel  1987  SWE   54.84  1:00.70  1:55.54  57.01
Disqualified 1st run
   74  30149 SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier  1980  ARG         
Did not start 1st run
   73  930160 KELLEY Robby  1990  USA         
   56  51159 NOESIG Christoph  1985  AUT         
Did not qualify for 2nd run
   79  90131 GEORGIEV Georgi  1987  BUL         
   77  700868 FALAT Matej  1993  SVK         
   76  150743 BERNDT Ondrej  1988  CZE         
   75  550054 ZVEJNIEKS Kristaps  1992  LAT         
   70  561161 JAZBEC Patrick  1989  SLO         
   69  192943 OBERT Anthony  1985  FRA         
   68  193334 RIVAS Gabriel  1986  FRA         
   66  530651 STIEGLER Seppi  1988  USA         
   65  511996 YULE Daniel  1993  SUI         
   62  561148 SKUBE Matic  1988  SLO         
   61  422082 SOLEVAAG Sebastian-Foss  1991  NOR         
  &nb
sp;60
 511908 SCHMIDIGER Reto  1992  SUI         
   59  193986 PLACE Francois  1989  FRA         
   58  380290 SAMSAL Dalibor  1985  CRO         
   57  102239 COUSINEAU Julien  1981  CAN         
   53  930107 GREGORAK Will  1990  USA         
   52  150594 TREJBAL Filip  1985  CZE         
   51  201896 STEHLE Dominik  1986  GER         
   50  201891 SCHMID Philipp  1986  GER         
   49  511902 ZENHAEUSERN Ramon  1992  SUI         
   48  301312 SASAKI Akira  1981  JPN         
   47  561117 KUERNER Miha  1987  SLO         
   43  194207 THEOLIER Steven  1990  FRA         
   39  700830 ZAMPA Adam  1990  SVK         
   32  530165 BRANDENBURG Will  1987  USA         
Did not finish 2nd run
   36  421849 JOHANSEN Truls  1989  NOR         
   24  511174 VOGEL Markus  1984  SUI         
   14  293098 RAZZOLI Giuliano  1984  ITA         
   1  194364 PINTURAULT Alexis  1991  FRA         
Did not finish 1st run
   81  800013 TOLA Erjon  1986  ALB         
   80  40349 RISHWORTH Mike  1987  AUS         
   78  561255 CATER Martin  1992  SLO         
   72  561244 KRANJEC Zan  1992  SLO         
   71  501401 SAXVALL Per  1989  SWE         
   67  60015 MOLLIN Bart  1981  BEL         
   64  51395 DIGRUBER Marc  1988  AUT         
   63  193347 TISSOT Maxime  1986  FRA         
   55  220689 RYDING David  1986  GBR         
   54  481148 MAYTAKOV Sergei  1990  RUS         
   46  192504 MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas  1984  FRA         
   45  934502 ANKENY Michael  1991  USA         
   38  193967 MUFFAT JEANDET Victor  1989  FRA         
   37  54063 FELLER Manuel  1992  AUT         
   33  102727 STUTZ Paul  1983  CAN         
   29  50981 HOERL Wolfgang  1983  AUT         
   28  534508 CHODOUNSKY David  1984  USA         
   23  192665 GRANGE Jean-Baptiste  1984  FRA         
   22  560355 VALENCIC Mitja  1978  SLO         
   17  291145 DEVILLE Cristian  1981  ITA         
   15  50625 RAICH Benjamin  1978  AUT         
   8  50624 PRANGER Manfred  1978  AUT         
   3  201702 NEUREUTHER Felix  1984  GER     

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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.”