Neureuther takes Wengen slalom win to close Lauberhorn
In 1973 and ’74, Christian Neureuther won the Wengen slalom. Sunday (Jan. 20) his son Felix joined him on the win list.
Neureuther said it was “an amazing day for me,” as he downed first leader Marcel Hirscher turning a .05 first run deficit into a .26 margin of victory and his fourth career World Cup win.
Hirscher took second and still holds a large 112point lead in the slalom standings, and Ivica Kostelic, the winner of this race the last three seasons, skied a smart race to third.
Despite not taking a podium placing it was a great day for Italians who wound up with three skiers in the top seven. Manfred Moelgg led for much of the second heat and held on for fourth with Stefano Gross fifth and Guiliano Razzoli charging into seventh behind Neureuther’s teammate Fritz Dopfer.
Ted Ligety led the Americans in 13th place. Canada’s Michael Janyk got on the scoreboard in 26th.
The day was considerably warmer than it had been earlier in the week as the warm African breeze known as the Fahn moved into Wengen’s weather pattern, making for an ever softening course. It kept things interesting. Neither Hircher or Neureuther had perfect runs on the famed Maennlichen slope that carries racers past haybarns and in and out of the sun. Neureuther was forced to jam his way through a turn above the steep and Hirscher needed an athletic inside ski turn just to stay on course.
In fact, the fastest second run of the day – set by German coach Albert Doppelhofer – belonged to Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Grange, though he managed only 14th place over two runs.
The race set up well for a big finish. There were 16 men within a second of Hirscher’s leading time with the top six – Hirscher, Neureuther, Jens Byggmark, Kostelic, Mattias Hargin and Gross, all with .39 of a second. The Swedes, Byggmark and Hargin, paid for overly aggressive attacks, Byggmark falling all the way to 23rd place and Hargin to eighth. Team point leader Andre Myhrer was a first run DNF. The Swede’s still managed three in the top 10 with Axel Baeck and Markus Larsson tying for ninth.
The SCOOP
by Hank McKee
Men’s World Cup slalom, Wengen, Switzerland, Jan. 20, 2013
Equipment
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Neureuther, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
2 Hirscher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
4 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
5 Gross, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
6 Dopfer, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
7 Razzoli, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Hargin, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
9 Baeck, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9 Larsson, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
Men’s World Cup slalom, Wengen, Switzerland, Jan. 20, 2013. … It is the 43rd race of the 2012-13 World Cup season. … The 21st of 36 races on the men’s schedule and the sixth of nine scheduled slaloms (plus two city events). … It is the third and final race of the 83rd Lauberhorn. … It is the 98th Cup race hosted by Wengen. … the 34th slalom. … Ivica Kostelic has won the last three consecutive Wengen slaloms.
It is the fourth career World Cup win for Felix Neureuther. … three in slalom at one city event. … He is two shy of matching his father (Christian) for Cup victories. … It is his second win of the season (after the Munich city event) and fifth podium of the season.
It is the 38th career World Cup podium result for Marcel Hirscher. … his 19th in slalom. … It is his second podium result at Wengen. … It is his 11th podium of the season in 12 completed races. … and his sixth of the season in six slaloms.
It is the 54th career World Cup podium for Ivica Kostelic. … his 37th in slalom. … He is one podium shy of matching his sister Janica’s Croatian national record of 55. … It is his second podium of the season, both of them coming at Wengen.
Ted Ligety matches his 33rd best Cup slalom result. … He matches his third best slalom mark of the season. … Michael Janyk tallies his first score of the season.
Marcel Hirscher leads the World Cup Overall Standings 935-747 over Aksel Lund Svindal (did not race). … Ligety is third at 696. … Neureuther closes in fourth to 646pts. … Hirscher leads the slalom standings 600-486 over Neureuther. … Andre Myhrer (1st run DNF) is third with 330pts. … Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 3499-2509 over Italy. … France is third with 1986. … The US is sixth with 2322pts and Canada ninth with 526pts.
Wengen (SUI)
FIS World Cup
Men’s Slalom
Jan. 20, 2013
| Rank | Bib | FIS Code | Name | Year | Nation | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total Time | FIS Points |
| 1 | 4 | 201702 | NEUREUTHER Felix | 1984 | GER | 57.80 | 52.73 | 1:50.53 | 0.00 |
| 2 | 1 | 53831 | HIRSCHER Marcel | 1989 | AUT | 57.75 | 52.99 | 1:50.74 | 1.18 |
| 3 | 7 | 380260 | KOSTELIC Ivica | 1979 | CRO | 58.00 | 52.78 | 1:50.78 | 1.40 |
| 4 | 14 | 292491 | MOELGG Manfred | 1982 | ITA | 58.39 | 52.60 | 1:50.99 | 2.58 |
| 5 | 8 | 293797 | GROSS Stefano | 1986 | ITA | 58.14 | 53.01 | 1:51.15 | 3.48 |
| 6 | 15 | 202462 | DOPFER Fritz | 1987 | GER | 58.29 | 52.90 | 1:51.19 | 3.70 |
| 7 | 20 | 293098 | RAZZOLI Giuliano | 1984 | ITA | 58.63 | 52.94 | 1:51.57 | 5.83 |
| 8 | 10 | 501111 | HARGIN Mattias | 1985 | SWE | 58.12 | 53.51 | 1:51.63 | 6.17 |
| 9 | 26 | 501223 | BAECK Axel | 1987 | SWE | 58.31 | 53.33 | 1:51.64 | 6.23 |
| 9 | 23 | 500656 | LARSSON Markus | 1979 | SWE | 58.47 | 53.17 | 1:51.64 | 6.23 |
| 11 | 11 | 192506 | MISSILLIER Steve | 1984 | FRA | 58.33 | 53.42 | 1:51.75 | 6.84 |
| 12 | 3 | 50707 | MATT Mario | 1979 | AUT | 58.41 | 53.38 | 1:51.79 | 7.07 |
| 13 | 13 | 534562 | LIGETY Ted | 1984 | USA | 58.61 | 53.25 | 1:51.86 | 7.46 |
| 14 | 24 | 192665 | GRANGE Jean-Baptiste | 1984 | FRA | 59.39 | 52.55 | 1:51.94 | 7.91 |
| 15 | 18 | 50605 | HERBST Reinfried | 1978 | AUT | 58.71 | 53.33 | 1:52.04 | 8.47 |
| 16 | 12 | 50624 | PRANGER Manfred | 1978 | AUT | 58.92 | 53.26 | 1:52.18 | 9.26 |
| 17 | 17 | 290732 | THALER Patrick | 1978 | ITA | 58.92 | 53.40 | 1:52.32 | 10.04 |
| 18 | 16 | 50625 | RAICH Benjamin | 1978 | AUT | 58.85 | 53.56 | 1:52.41 | 10.55 |
| 19 | 6 | 291145 | DEVILLE Cristian | 1981 | ITA | 58.91 | 53.59 | 1:52.50 | 11.05 |
| 20 | 36 | 54063 | FELLER Manuel | 1992 | AUT | 59.12 | 53.43 | 1:52.55 | 11.33 |
| 21 | 43 | 511902 | ZENHAEUSERN Ramon | 1992 | SUI | 59.75 | 52.91 | 1:52.66 | 11.95 |
| 22 | 25 | 50981 | HOERL Wolfgang | 1983 | AUT | 59.72 | 53.02 | 1:52.74 | 12.40 |
| 23 | 9 | 501101 | BYGGMARK Jens | 1985 | SWE | 57.86 | 54.91 | 1:52.77 | 12.56 |
| 24 | 42 | 301312 | SASAKI Akira | 1981 | JPN | 59.52 | 53.32 | 1:52.84 | 12.96 |
| 25 | 31 | 511127 | GINI Marc | 1984 | SUI | 59.41 | 53.45 | 1:52.86 | 13.07 |
| 26 | 28 | 102435 | JANYK Michael | 1982 | CAN | 1:00.02 | 53.32 | 1:53.34 | 15.76 |
| 27 | 22 | 511174 | VOGEL Markus | 1984 | SUI | 59.50 | 54.12 | 1:53.62 | 17.33 |
| 28 | 41 | 192504 | MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas | 1984 | FRA | 1:00.24 | 53.63 | 1:53.87 | 18.74 |
| 29 | 30 | 480736 | KHOROSHILOV Alexander | 1984 | RUS | 1:00.21 | 54.11 | 1:54.32 | 21.26 |
| Did not qualify for 2nd run | |||||||||
| 55 | 561217 | KOSI Klemen | 1991 | SLO | |||||
| 52 | 103646 | ZAITSOFF Sasha | 1990 | CAN | |||||
| 51 | 193347 | TISSOT Maxime | 1986 | FRA | |||||
| 49 | 501116 | LAHDENPERAE Anton | 1985 | SWE | |||||
| 48 | 380290 | SAMSAL Dalibor | 1985 | CRO | |||||
| 46 | 150594 | TREJBAL Filip | 1985 | CZE | |||||
| 38 | 700830 | ZAMPA Adam | 1990 | SVK | |||||
| 37 | 193967 | MUFFAT JEANDET Victor | 1989 | FRA | |||||
| 35 | 180703 | PALONIEMI Santeri | 1993 | FIN | |||||
| 34 | 421669 | HAUGEN Leif Kristian | 1987 | NOR | |||||
| 32 | 530165 | BRANDENBURG Will | 1987 | USA | |||||
| 29 | 534508 | CHODOUNSKY David | 1984 | USA | |||||
| 27 | 150644 | KRYZL Krystof | 1986 | CZE | |||||
| 19 | 301709 | YUASA Naoki | 1983 | JPN | |||||
| 2 | 194364 | PINTURAULT Alexis | 1991 | FRA | |||||
| D id not finish 2nd run |
|||||||||
| 44 | 201891 | SCHMID Philipp | 1986 | GER | |||||
| Did not finish 1st run | |||||||||
| 57 | 430429 | BYDLINSKI Maciej | 1988 | POL | |||||
| 56 | 92534 | CHONGAROV Nikola | 1989 | BUL | |||||
| 54 | 150495 | VRABLIK Martin | 1982 | CZE | |||||
| 53 | 30149 | SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier | 1980 | ARG | |||||
| 50 | 50547 | SCHOENFELDER Rainer | 1977 | AUT | |||||
| 47 | 102239 | COUSINEAU Julien | 1981 | CAN | |||||
| 45 | 201896 | STEHLE Dominik | 1986 | GER | |||||
| 40 | 511983 | AERNI Luca | 1993 | SUI | |||||
| 39 | 294890 | NANI Roberto | 1988 | ITA | |||||
| 33 | 103865 | PHILP Trevor | 1992 | CAN | |||||
| 21 | 560355 | VALENCIC Mitja | 1978 | SLO | |||||
| 5 | 501017 | MYHRER Andre | 1983 | SWE | |||||
About the Author: Hank McKee
