Kvitfjell: Raich wins SC; Svindal nabs crystal

Benjamin Raich won a super combi race Friday to increase his overall World Cup lead, while Aksel Lund Svindal clinched the season title in the discipline. Raich, the defending overall champion from Austria, won the event after a brilliant slalom race in 2 minutes, 21.22 seconds to boost his overall lead over Svindal. Raich has 1,045 points, while Svindal has 928.
    Silvan Zurbriggen of Switzerland was second in 2:22.63, with Svindal third in 2:22.78.
    Raich had finished 11th in the opening downhill leg. Didier Cuche of Switzerland won the downhill leg, edging Bode Miller of the United States by 0.14. Miller finished 13th in 2:24.87.
    Going into the race, Svindal trailed Marc Berthod of Switzerland by only one point in the discipline standings. But Berthod finished well back in the slalom leg after nearly skiing out on the upper part of the Olympiabakken course.

KVITFJELL, Norway — Benjamin Raich won a super combi race Friday to increase his overall World Cup lead, while Aksel Lund Svindal clinched the season title in the discipline.
    Raich, the defending overall champion from Austria, won the event after a brilliant slalom race in 2 minutes, 21.22 seconds to boost his overall lead over Svindal. Raich has 1,045 points, while Svindal has 928.
    Silvan Zurbriggen of Switzerland was second in 2:22.63, with Svindal third in 2:22.78.
    Raich had finished 11th in the opening downhill leg but posted the fastest slalom run en route to his fifth win of the season.
    Didier Cuche of Switzerland won the downhill leg, edging Bode Miller of the United States by 0.14. Miller finished 13th in 2:24.87.
    Miller led the slalom until he made a mistake coming onto a flat section and almost went off course before rallying to finish 13th. In a race postponed from mid-December because of poor snow in Chamonix, France, Andrew Weibrecht of Lake Placid, New York, the only other U.S. skier to finish both runs, was 32nd.
    Steven Nyman and T.J. Lanning did not finish the slalom leg, while Scott Macartney and Marco Sullivan raced only the downhill portion.
    Going into the race, Svindal trailed Marc Berthod of Switzerland by only one point in the discipline standings. But Berthod finished well back in the slalom leg after nearly skiing out on the upper part of the Olympiabakken course.
    Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic, who also had mathematical chance to win the title, was also beaten by Svindal.
    The men race a downhill Saturday and a super G Sunday before heading to Lenzerheide, Switzerland, for World Cup Finals. Top 25 skiers in SL, GS, super G and downhill plus world juniors champions will compete.
    Raich, who reached his fourth consecutive podium in four races since Garmisch-Partenkirchen, was extremely pleased by his first super combined win this season. “It’s definitely an important win for me, also because I really skied so well in both legs, especially this morning in the downhill part,” he said. “It was certainly my best performance in downhill this winter. I felt afterward that I had a good chance for the victory in the afternoon with another strong slalom run. You have to be solid the entire day to achieve such a performance.
    “The slalom course was not as easy to race as it seems, especially in the first steep part. But I didn’t calculate, I just went for it — it’s still the best way to be focused and aggressive. It’s good to have such a nice advance on Aksel with all those remaining speed events. I think the battle can continue until the last race at the Finals. I have to be very consistent and not make mistakes. It’s easy to lose 60 or 100 points with a stupid mistake.”
    In the coming two speed events, Raich can hope to only lose a minimum of points on Svindal. He has twice been fourth in super G here and 12th in downhill two years ago — better performances in fact than Svindal, who has never reached the top 10 here.
    The double world champion is aware of the tough challenges he is now facing in the overall competition. “It will be tough, which is not really a surprise for me because I always knew how good Benjamin can be in big races,” Svindal said.
    “I have to keep on skiing at my best to have a serious chance now, but I’ll for sure do my best. I’m happy to have captured this super combined globe. I was hoping to reach it, but it was not so important after my great successes at Are. I’m also fighting for the title in giant slalom and in super G, so I have to excel in all coming races. I’ll try hard to make the fight interesting until the end.”
    Saturday’s downhill could be a turning point for the Norwegian and the other top contenders. Svindal and Cuche will look to finish it on the podium and score “heavy” points to keep a real chance to seriously challenging their Austrian rival.
    But there are many other skiers aiming for the podium here, including Miller, very fast in the short downhill this morning. On Sunday, the skier from New Hampshire will fight for his second specialty World Cup title in super G.

— Manuèle Lang and The Associated Press contributed to this report

THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's super combined, Kvitfjell, Norway, March 9, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Zurbriggen, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
3 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Kostelic, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
5 Fill, Dynastar/Lange/Look
6 Scheiber, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7 Olsson, Head/Head/Tyrolia
8 Bourgeat, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9 Berthod, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10 Defago, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol

Men's super combined, Kvitfjell, Norway, March 9, 2007. … It is the 30th race held of the men's 38-race World Cup schedule. … Six races remain to be contested. … It is the fourth of five scheduled combined with one being canceled. … It is a make-up event from the combined originally scheduled at Chamonix Jan. 21, and moved to Val d'Isere. … It is the first of three races set for Kvitfjell.
    It is the 28th career World Cup win for Benjamin Raich (7th DH, 1st SL). … His fifth in combined. … Raich moves past Phil Mahre on the all-time win list to hold 15th place by himself, one win behind Stephan Eberharter. … He ties Marie Therese Nadig and Lasse Kjus for 10th on the list of combined winners. … It is his fifth win of the season, first in combined.
    Silvan Zurbriggen (4th DH, 4th SL) matches his career-best mark first established in a night slalom at Sestriere Dec. 13, 2004. … His previous best in combined had been third at Wengen earlier this season. … These three events mark his only Cup podiums.
    It is the 11th career World Cup podium for Aksel Lund Svindal (5th DH, 5th SL). … His fourth in combined. … It is his fifth Cup podium of the season, and second in combined following a win at Beaver Creek Nov. 30. … He also won two gold medals at the World Championships in DH and GS.
    Bode Miller (2nd DH, 3
0th SL) in 13th and Andrew Weibrecht (30th DH, 32nd SL) in 32nd are the only U.S. placings. … It is the first completed combined of the World Cup season for Miller. … He did finish sixth in the event at World Championships. … It is the first completed World Cup race of three starts for Weibrecht. … It is the fifth-best career result for Ryan Semple of eight total scoring finishes. … It is his third-best in combined. … It is the 13th-best of 22 total for John Kucera, his sixth-best in combined. … It is the 19th-best result of 19 for Michael Jaynk. … And just his second scoring finish in combined.
    Aksel Svindal claims the combined title 232-202 over Marc Berthod (ninth in race). … Ivica Kostelic (fourth in race) finishes third in combined standings. … Ted Ligety leads the U.S. in the standings tied for 11th with 202 points. … It is the second career World Cup title for Svindal, who won the SG crown last season. …  Raich controls the overall standings 1045-928 over Svindal. … Didier Cuche (16th in race) is third at 803. … Bode Miller is fourth at 691. … Winning margin is 1.41 seconds. … Top five skiers are within two seconds.

Kvitfjell men’s World Cup super combined results

Did not start slalom leg:
BERTRAND Yannick (FRA), SOLBAKKEN Bjarne (NOR), STEHLE Johannes (GER), SULLIVAN Marco (USA), SULZENBACHER Kurt (ITA), STAUDACHER Patrick (ITA), GUAY Erik (CAN), WALCHHOFER Michael (AUT), OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel (CAN), BOURQUE Francois (CAN), JAERBYN Patrik (SWE), BUECHEL Marco (LIE), DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel (FRA), GRUBER Christoph (AUT), GRUENENFELDER Tobias (SUI), HOFFMANN Ambrosi (SUI), KEPPLER Stephan (GER), KERNEN Bruno (SUI), KROELL Klaus (AUT), MICKEL Finlay (GBR), MACARTNEY Scott (USA), MAIER Hermann (AUT), HUDEC Jan (CAN), BUDER Andreas (AUT)

Did not finish:
BRENNA Petter (NOR), PAQUIN Pierre (FRA), PERKO Rok (SLO), LANNING Thomas (tj) (USA), EISATH Florian (ITA), JERMAN Andrej (SLO), SPORN Andrej (SLO), NYMAN Steven (USA)

Final men's World Cup super combi standings
After 4 races
1. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 232 points.
2. Marc Berthod, Switzerland, 202.
3. Ivica Kostelic, Croatia, 200.
4. Silvan Zurbriggen, Switzerland, 169.
5. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 166.
6. Romed Baumann, Austria, 140.
7. Peter Fill, Italy, 127.
8. Hans Olsson, Sweden, 106.
(tie) Rainer Schoenfelder, Austria, 106.
10. Pierrick Bourgeat, France, 104.
Also
11. Ted Ligety, United States, 102.

Overall standings
1. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 1,045 points.
2. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 928.
3. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 803.
4. Bode Miller, United States, 691.
5. Mario Matt, Austria, 664.
6. Peter Fill, Italy, 646.
7. Marc Berthod, Switzerland, 496.
8. Kalle Palander, Finland, 482.
9. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 481.
10. Jens Byggmark, Sweden, 461.
Also
14. Ted Ligety, United States, 440.