SHiga Kogen: Palander wins race, Raich wraps up overall title

SHiga Kogen: Palander wins race, Raich wraps up overall title{mosimage}SHIGA KOGEN, Japan – Austria’s Benjamin Raich finished fourth in Saturday’s men’s alpine slalom race, wrapping up his first overall World Cup title.

Raich, who won Friday’s slalom here, had a time of 1 minute, 40.95 seconds on the Mount Yakebitai course.

”It was a perfect day,” said Raich. ”Fourth place is good. The overall World Cup title is fixed and all the training and hard work has paid off.”

Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, the only skier with a mathematical chance of catching Raich in the standings, finished tied for eighth place.

Kalle Palander of Finland and Austrian Reinfried Herbst tied for first with times of 1:40.60. Canada’s Thomas Grandi was third in 1:40.93.

Raich has 1,310 points after Saturday’s race. Svindal has 810 points but needed to win all five remaining events to catch Raich.

Raich said he didn’t feel too much pressure to win the overall title.

”I pretty much knew I had it going into today’s race,” said Raich. ”But skiing is No. 1 in Austria and people expect an Austrian to be on top of the podium.”

After Saturday’s slalom in Shiga Kogen, the remaining four men’s World Cup events will be held at Are, Sweden, from March 15-19.

Raich said he will likely race in the super G, giant slalom and slalom races in Sweden and will be gunning for the giant slalom title.

For Palander, it was another fine performance in Japan.

”I always seem to ski well here,” said Palander. ”I won in Shiga Kogen three years ago and have no trouble with the snow. The conditions are a bit different from other places but it doesn’t bother me.”

With Saturday’s win, Palander held on to second place in the slalom standings with 495 points. Italy’s Giorgio Rocca, who tied for eighth place Saturday, is first with 547 points.

Palander said Rocca must be feeling the pressure.

”I feel bad for him because he won five slaloms in a row at the start of the season but has struggled since,” Palander said. ”He fell at the Olympics and now it looks like he may not win the slalom title, but that’s competition.”

Grandi took his second straight third-place finish.

”It was a good race today,” said Grandi. ”I had nothing to lose and just tried to ski aggressively. Any time you can get two podiums you have to be happy.”

Ted Ligety was 10th. Ligety, the lone U.S. skier to make the second run, had the fifth-fastest second run after being 16th in the first run and finished with a total time of 1:41.64.

World Cup Finals begin Wednesday in Are, Sweden, host of the 2007 World Alpine Ski Championships. U.S. Alpine Championships — where Ligety will be the defending slalom and combined champion — are set for March 25-30 at Maine’s Sugarloaf USA.

– The Associated Press/USSA

World Cup men’s slalom
SHIGA KOGEN, Japan – Results Saturday from a men’s World Cup slalom event held at Shiga Kogen ski resort.

1. Kalle Palander, Finland, 1 minute, 40.60 seconds (50.25-50.35).
1. Reinfried Herbst, Austria, 1:40.60 (50.86-49.74).
3. Thomas Grandi, Canada, 1:40.93 (50.87-50.06).
4. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 1:40.95 (50.48-50.47)
5. Markus Larsson, Sweden, 1:41.11 (50.81-50.30).
6. Akira Sasaki, Japan, 1:41.13 (51.24-49.89).
7. Kentaro Minagawa, Japan, 1:41.38 (51.63-49.75).
8. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 1:41.53 (51.66-49.87).
8. Giorgio Rocca, Italy, 1:41.53 (50.66-50.87).
10. Ted Ligety, United States, 1:41.64 (52.24-49.40).
11. Felix Neureuther, Germany, 1:42.22 (53.25-48.97).
12. Mario Matt, Austria, 1:42.25 (51.76-50.49).
13. Manfred Pranger, Austria, 1:42.30 (51.53-50.77).
14. Andre Myhrer, Sweden, 1:42.32 (52.77-49.55).
15. Pierrick Bourgeat, France, 1:42.34 (53.03-49.31).

Did not qualify for 2nd run:
Chip Knight, Stowe, Vt.; Jimmy Cochran, Keene, N.H.; Tom Rothrock, Cashmere, Wash.

Overall slalom standings
(After 9 races)

1. Giorgio Rocca, Italy, 547 points.
2. Kalle Palander, Finland, 495.
3. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 410.
4. Ted Ligety, United States, 396.
5. Reinfried Herbst, Austria, 316.
6. Akira Sasaki, Japan, 304.
7. Thomas Grandi, Canada, 300.
8. Stephane Tissot, France, 256.
9. Jean-Pierre Vidal, France, 253.
10. Kentaro Minagawa, Japan, 195.

Overall World Cup standings
(After 33 races)

1. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 1,310.
2. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 831.
3. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 810.
4. Kalle Palander, Finland, 801.
5. Hermann Maier, Austria, 750.
6. Bode Miller, United States, 748.
7. Daron Rahlves, United States, 747.
8. Kjetil Andre Aamodt, Norway, 635.
9. Ted Ligety, United States, 600.
10. Giorgio Rocca, Italy, 597.MEN’S A