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

Men’s slalom
Shiga Kogen, Japan
March 11, 2006
1. Kalle Palander, FIN 1:40.60
1. Reinfried Herbst, AUT 1:40.60
3. Thomas Grandi, CAN 1:40.93
4. Benjamin Raich, AUT 1:40.95
5. Markus Larsson, SWE 1:41.11
6. Akira Sasaki, JPN 1:41.13
7. Kentaro Minagawa, JPN 1:41.38
8. Aksel Svindal, NOR 1:41.53
8. Giorgio Rocca, ITA 1:41.53
10. Ted Ligety, USA 1:41.64
11. Felix Neureuther, GER 1:42.22
12. Mario Matt, AUT 1:42.25
13. Manfred Pranger, AUT 1:42.30
14. Andre Myhrer, SWE 1:42.32
15. Pierrick Bourgeat, FRA 1:42.34
16. Alexandre Anselmet, FRA 1:42.41
16. Stephane Tissot, FRA 1:42.41
18. Naoki Yuasa, JPN 1:42.46
19. Kilian Albrecht, AUT 1:42.55
20. Ivica Kostelic, CRO 1:42.59
21. Cristian Deville, ITA 1:42.83
22. Daniel Albrecht, SUI 1:42.92
23. Andreas Omminger, AUT 1:43.02
23. Patrick Thaler, ITA 1:43.02
25. Rainer Schoenfelder, AUT 1:43.11
26. Manfred Moelgg, ITA 1:43.19
27. Johan Brolenius, SWE 1:43.43
28. Martin Marinac, AUT 1:43.87
Other North Americans:
DNQ 2nd: Chip Knight, James Cochran, Tom Rothrock, USA; Jean-Philippe Roy, Patrick Biggs, CAN.
DSQ 1st: Michael Janyk, CAN.
DNF 1st: Ryan Semple, CAN.

THE SCOOP

Equipment
Men’s SL, Shiga Kogen, March 11, 2006
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1. Palander, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
1. Herbst, Blizzard/Tecnica/Marker
3. Grandi, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4. Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5. Larsson, Fischer/Nordica/Fischer
6. Sasaki, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
7. Minagawa, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
8. Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8. Rocca, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10. Ligety, Volkl/Nordica/Marker

Men’s slalom, Shiga Kogen, Japan, March 11, 2006. … It is the 33rd event of the men’s 34 race, four combined World Cup schedule. … (Chamonix DH has been canceled). … It is the ninth of 10 scheduled slaloms. … Only World Cup Finals remain on the schedule with one race in each discipline.

It is the 12th career win for Kalle Palander. … 11th in slalom. … It is his second win at Shigakogen having won March 8, 2003. … It is his second win of the season, the other also in slalom at Schladming.

It is the first career win for Reinfried Herbst. … And just his 11th career World Cup scoring result. … It is third podium of the season, the others second place results at Kitzbuehel and for the silver medal in the Olympics.

It is the eighth career podium for Thomas Grandi, the fourth in slalom. … It is his fourth podium of the season and third in slalom. … It is his second third-place finish in two days. … He has recorded a dozen top-10 results this season.

It is the 13th career top 10 for Ted Ligety. … 12 of them from this season. … It is the third time he has finished 10th this season, but he has had just one scoring result worse.

Benjamin Raich (fourth in race) will win the 2006 World Cup overall title. … He leads 1,310-831 in the World Cup overall standings over Michael Walchhofer (did not race). … With four races remaining his 479 point-lead cannot be overcome. … Giorgio Rocca (tied for eighth in race) holds the slalom standings lead 547-495 over Kalle Palander. … They are the remaining two skiers in contention for the slalom crown. … Rocca needs to place third or better to clinch the title regardless of where Palander finishes. … Though he won the first five slaloms of the season he has not placed better than eighth since Jan. 15. …
Winning margin was 0.00. … Third place was .33 back. … Top nine skiers were within the same second. … Top 20 within two seconds.