Garmisch: Austria's Herbst earns second WC win
Reinfried Herbst put together the fastest times in both runs to win a men's World Cup slalom on Saturday.
His win saved the day for the Austrians, who did not have another skier in the top 10.
The Austrian beat Manfred Moelgg of Italy by 0.65 seconds on a sun-drenched Gudiberg course. Ivica Kostelic of Croatia was third in 1:43.18.
World Cup overall leader Bode Miller of the United States straddled a gate halfway down the slope and did not finish the first run. His closest overall challenger, Benjamin Raich of Austria, finished 11th to gain some ground.
Ted Ligety led the U.S. Ski Team in seventh place to highlight an otherwise disappointing day for North American racers. Cody Marshall, Tim Kelley and Jimmy Cochran of the U.S. team failed to finish the first run, as did every member of Team Canada.
"We were too inconsistent for my liking," U.S. head coach Phil McNichol said. "It was a tough, challenging course, for sure, and it punished skiers all day. But that's no reason we didn't do better."
GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — Reinfried Herbst put together the fastest times in both runs to win a men's World Cup slalom on Saturday.
His win saved the day for the Austrians, who did not have another skier in the top 10.
Herbst beat Manfred Moelgg of Italy by 0.65 seconds on a sun-drenched Gudiberg course. Although he led by nearly half a second after the first run, Herbst did not hold back in the second heat and attacked the course all the way to post his second World Cup victory. His first came nearly two years ago in Shigakogen, Japan.
Herbst had a combined time of one minute, 42 seconds for the two heats, while Moelgg finished in 1:42.65.
Ivica Kostelic of Croatia was third in 1:43.18.
Ted Ligety led the U.S. Ski Team in seventh place to highlight an otherwise disappointing day for North American racers. World Cup overall leader Bode Miller of the U.S. straddled a gate halfway down the slope and did not finish the first run. His closest overall challenger, Benjamin Raich of Austria, finished 11th to gain some ground.
Cody Marshall, Tim Kelley and Jimmy Cochran of the U.S. team failed to finish the first run, as did every member of Team Canada.
"We were too inconsistent for my liking," U.S. head coach Phil McNichol said. "It was a tough, challenging course, for sure, and it punished skiers all day. But that's no reason we didn't do better."
"Ted had a huge mistake in his first run, but he saved it and then he ripped the second run. He continues to show he's in the hunt, and if he hadn't had that first-run problem, I'm sure he could have been on the podium," the coach said.
Standings leaders have a tough day
On a tough slope, many top-ranked skiers had problems.
World Cup slalom leader Jean-Baptiste Grange of France, winner of three straight slaloms earlier in the season, placed 25th.
Felix Neureuther, racing on his home slope but recovering from a cold, shared fourth place with Kostelic after the first run. But he caved in under pressure in the second, making too many mistakes to come 17th.
Austria's Rainer Schoenfelder, Mario Matt and Alexander Koll, Jens Byggmark of Sweden and Switzerland's Marc Gini and Marc Berthod also failed to finish.
Grange remains the slalom leader with 462 points, while Matt is 91 points behind.
Miller has 1,067 points overall, while Raich has 969. Miller has collected World Cup points in only three of eight slaloms this season.
The World Cup men are off until next Sunday when they tackle another slalom at Zagreb, Croatia. McNichol said the U.S. men's group would ski in a couple of Europa Cup slaloms before Sunday's slalom.
The SCOOP
By Hank McKee
Equipment
Men's slalom, Garmisch-Partnekirchen, Germany, Feb. 9, 2008
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Herbst, Blizzard/Tecnica/Marker
2 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
3 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
4 Deville, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
5 Lizeroux, Fischer/Lange/Fischer
6 Dragsic, Volkl/Marker
7 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
8 Brolenius, Elan/Nordica/Elan
9 Valencic, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
10 Hargin, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
Men's slalom, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, Feb. 9, 2008. … It is the 29th race of the men's 41 event World Cup schedule. … The eighth of 11 scheduled slaloms. … It is the 78th World Cup held at Garmisch. … The 16th slalom and the 12th men's slalom.
It is the second career World Cup win for Reinfried Herbst, the other coming in slalom at Shogakogen March 11, 2006. … His only other podium came in slalom at Kitzbuehel Jan. 22, 2006. … His best previous result this season was fourth at Alta Badia's slalom Dec. 17. … He has four top 10 slalom results this season. … It is the 15th win of the season for Austria and 10 of those have come in slalom.
It is the ninth career World Cup podium for Manfred Moelgg, eighth in slalom with the other in GS. … He is yet to gain a Cup win. … It is his fifth podium of the season. … He has registered 10 top 10 results this season all in slalom or GS.
It is the 20th career World Cup podium for Ivica Kostelic. … His fourth of the season. … and his third in consecutive races. … It is his first podium of the season in slalom the other three all coming in combined.
It is the 37th career World Cup top 10 for Ted Ligety. … His 12th this season. … He was ninth after the first run.
Winning margin is .65 of a second. … Third place is 1.18seconds back. … Top eight are within two seconds. … Bode Miller (1st run DNF) maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 1067-969 for Benjamin Raich (11th in race). … Didier Cuche (did not race) holds third with 882pts and Jean-Baptiste Grange (25th in race) is fourth at 682. … Ted Ligety is sixth with 612pts. … Grange maintains the lead of the slalom standings but Manfred Moelgg closes in second 462-371. … Raich is third at 308. … Ligety is the top American on the slalom list in 10th with 238pts. … Austria leads the Men's Nations Cup 4946-2900 over Switzerland. … Italy is third with 2566pts and the U.S. fourth at 2454.
Rank | Bib | FIS Code | Name | Year | Nation | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total Time | FIS Points |
1 | 15 | 50605 | HERBST Reinfried | 1978 | AUT | 50.97 | 51.03 | 1:42.00 | 0.00 |
2 | 7 | 292491 | MOELGG Manfred | 1982 | ITA | 51.42 | 51.23 | 1:42.65 | 3.89 |
3 | 14 | 380260 | KOSTELIC Ivica | 1979 | CRO | 51.75 | 51.43 | 1:43.18 | 7.06 |
4 | 8 | 291145 | DEVILLE Cristian | 1981 | ITA | 51.77 | 51.52 | 1:43.29 | 7.71 |
5 | 6 | 191459 | LIZEROUX Julien | 1979 | FRA | 51.56 | 51.74 | 1:43.30 | 7.77 |
6 | 46 | 560371 | DRAGSIC Mitja | 1979 | SLO | 52.00 | 51.36 | 1:43.36 | 8.13 |
7 | 12 | 534562 | LIGETY Ted | 1984 | USA | 52.06 | 51.34 | 1:43.40 | 8.37 |
8 | 29 | 500499 | BROLENIUS Johan | 1977 | SWE | 52.05 | 51.89 | 1:43.94 | 11.60 |
9 | 54 | 560355 | VALENCIC Mitja | 1978 | SLO | 52.89 | 51.40 | 1:44.29 | 13.70 |
10 | 41 | 501111 | HARGIN Mattias | 1985 | SWE | 52.15 | 52.26 | 1:44.41 | 14.41 |
11 | 3 | 50625 | RAICH Benjamin | 1978 | AUT | 52.54 | 51.88 | 1:44.42 | 14.47 |
12 | 19 | 560425 | VAJDIC Bernard | 1980 | SLO | 52.32 | 52.18 | 1:44.50 | 14.95 |
13 | 24 | 290732 | THALER Patrick | 1978 | ITA | 52.47 | 52.06 | 1:44.53 | 15.13 |
14 | 34 | 150594 | TREJBAL Filip | 1985 | CZE | 53.00 | 51.60 | 1:44.60 | 15.55 |
15 | 21 | 290478 | ROCCA Giorgio | 1975 | ITA | 52.61 | 52.07 | 1:44.68 | 16.03 |
16 | 27 | 501116 | LAHDENPERAE Anton | 1985 | SWE | 53.03 | 51.66 | 1:44.69 | 16.09 |
17 | 2 | 201702 | NEUREUTHER Felix | 1984 | GER | 51.75 | 53.01 | 1:44.76 | 16.51 |
18 | 35 | 50981 | HOERL Wolfgang | 1983 | AUT | 52.53 | 52.24 | 1:44.77 | 16.57 |
19 | 25 | 300804 | MINAGAWA Kentaro | 1977 | JPN | 52.92 | 51.88 | 1:44.80 | 16.75 |
20 | 30 | 500124 | HANSSON Martin | 1975 | SWE | 53.22 | 51.94 | 1:45.16 | 18.90 |
21 | 40 | 293098 | RAZZOLI Giuliano | 1984 | ITA | 52.88 | 52.37 | 1:45.25 | 19.44 |
22 | 10 | 500656 | LARSSON Markus | 1979 | SWE | 53.11 | 52.27 | 1:45.38 | 20.21 |
23 | 48 | 180292 | LEINO Jukka | 1978 | FIN | 53.43 | 51.97 | 1:45.40 | 20.33 |
24 | 52 | 150644 | KRYZL Krystof | 1986 | CZE | 53.03 | 52.53 | 1:45.56 | 21.29 |
25 | 5 | 192665 | GRANGE Jean-Baptiste | 1984 | FRA | 52.26 | 53.39 | 1:45.65 | 21.83 |
26 | 36 | 92591 | ALBRECHT Kilian | 1973 | BUL | 53.40 | 1:00.32 | 1:53.72 | 70.09 |
27 | 70 | 201445 | WANNINGER Christian | 1981 | GER | 53.43 | 1:23.77 | 2:17.20 | 210.51 |
Did not start 1st run: SANDELL Marcus (FIN)
Did not finish 1st run: ALAERTS Kai (BEL), DOPFER Fritz (GER), BRENNA Petter (NOR), BJOERGVINSSON Bjoergvin (ISL), STEHLE Dominik (GER), VOGEL Markus (SUI), VRABLIK Martin (CZE), IKUTA Yasuhiro (JPN), ANSELMET Alexandre (FRA), BAUMANN Romed (AUT), MCDONALD Paul (USA), JANSRUD Kjetil (NOR), OMMINGER Andreas (AUT), ZARDINI Edoardo (ITA), NORDH Fredrik (SWE), IMBODEN Urs (MDA), KARLSEN Truls Ove (NOR), MARSHALL Cody (USA), STUTZ Paul (CAN), VILETTA Sandro (SUI), KOGLER Stefan (GER), YUASA Naoki (JPN), BIGGS Patrick (CAN), KELLEY Tim (USA), HIRSCHER Marcel (AUT), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), SASAKI Akira (JPN), COCHRAN Jimmy (USA), JANYK Michael (CAN), MILLER Bode (USA), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), MATT Mario (AUT)
Did not finish 2nd run: KOLL Alexander (AUT), GINI Marc (SUI), SCHOENFELDER Rainer (AUT), BYGGMARK Jens (SWE)
Did not qualify 1st run: BAXTER Alain (GBR), GEORGIEV Stefan (BUL), PAQUIN Pierre (FRA), MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas (FRA), BRENNER Hannes (AUT), CHENAL Joel (FRA), WHITE Trevor (CAN), BARRETT Scott (CAN), ANDERSSON Oscar (SWE), FILL Peter (ITA), ALBRECHT Daniel (SUI), MYHRER Andre (SWE)