Schladming: Raich fends off Byggmark, Matt for win

Olympic champion Benjamin Raich won a World Cup slalom on Tuesday, the last race before the World Championships.   
    Raich, who was second after the opening leg, charged down the floodlit Planai course in a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 42.55 seconds. Jens Byggmark, the winner of consecutive slalom races in Kitzbühel last weekend, was runner-up in 1:42.93.
    ''I had nothing to prove,'' Byggmark said.
    Mario Matt, who led after the opening run, dropped to third after the final leg with a time of 1:43.15. Matt has five career World Cup slalom victories but hasn't won since March 2005.
    Bode Miller skidded onto his right hip a few gates in, hiked back up the course to rerun the gate but finished last in 25th, almost 10 seconds off the pace. Miller will not get World Cup points because he was too far behind the winner.

SCHLADMING, Austria — Olympic champion Benjamin Raich won a World Cup slalom on Tuesday, the last race before the World Championships.   
    Raich, who was second after the opening leg, charged down the floodlit Planai course in a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 42.55 seconds. Jens Byggmark, the winner of consecutive slalom races in Kitzbühel last weekend, was runner-up in 1:42.93.
    ''I had nothing to prove,'' Byggmark said.
    Mario Matt, who led after the opening run, dropped to third after the final leg with a time of 1:43.15. Matt has five career World Cup slalom victories but hasn't won since March 2005.
    Bode Miller skidded onto his right hip a few gates in, hiked back up the course to rerun the gate but finished last in 25th, almost 10 seconds off the pace. Miller will not get World Cup points because he was too far behind the winner.
    But just qualifying for the second leg likely secured Miller a berth in the slalom at next month's worlds in Are, Sweden. The American wants to become the first skier to collect World Championships gold medals in all five disciplines. He is missing only the slalom gold.
    Only four skiers per nation can enter each discipline. Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety and Jimmy Cochran already have secured berths for the United States. Miller, Tom Rothrock and Tim Jitloff are vying for the last two spots, but Rothrock and Jitloff failed to finish in the top 30 Tuesday.
    Rothrock was 41st and 3.68 off the leading pace, while Jitloff was 52nd, trailing by 6.27. Miller hadn't completed a World Cup slalom since finishing 18th in Kitzbühel on Jan. 22, 2006.
    "Bode qualified for second runs in Adelboden and in Kitzbühel,'' U.S. head coach Phil McNichol said. ''Tim and Tom have not qualified for second runs yet. That's clearly something.''
    Ligety was 28th with 3.26 seconds to make up in the second leg and finished 17th after turning in the fourth-fastest second run. ''I made a mistake up top but it's kind of flabbergasting how I'm three seconds out,'' said Ligety, who was in a minor car accident the day before when his 4×4 rolled off the road.

Raich cool in the spotlight
    Raich earned his first World Cup win at Schladming eight years ago. It’s the fourth time in his career that the skier from Pitztal, in Tyrol, enjoyed such a triumph in front of nearly 50,000 people.
    It’s the second slalom win this season for Raich, who had a perfect start in Levi in November before failing to score points at Beaver Creek and Alta Badia in the following weeks. Last week, he seemed to have lost part of his touch in Kitzbühel where he was fifth and sixth. The extremely demanding race conditions certainly helped him Tuesday night, as well as the strong support from his fans.
    “It was incredibly tough this time, the snow was icy and the courses very challenging,” Raich said. “It was impossible to achieve a perfect run, but I fought very hard. It’s really a special place for me since my first win in 1999. The spectators were again fantastic and helped me a lot to reach my limits in both runs. I’m very happy to have captured again that big race which I like so much. It’s excellent for my confidence before traveling to Sweden.”
    Besides his four victories here, he also has finished three times on the podium — an impressive consistency for the 29-year-old Tyrolian, who proved once more that he remains pretty cool in big moments.
    Raich, who won’t compete in the speed events at Are, has two titles to defend there, the first in combined next week and another one in slalom on the last weekend.
    Byggmark, too, showed strong nerves Tuesday night. He is the only skier to have ended all the recent slaloms among the top 10. “What a fabulous race it was,” he said. “It was great fun and I’m very happy with my result. I was just aiming for another good race this night and to be again on the podium here is huge.”
    The World Cup tour is on hold now for three weeks. The next stop is scheduled at the end of February at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, with two downhill races and a slalom.
    On Saturday, the FIS Alpine World Championships will begin at Are with men’s super G. Defending champion Miller remains a favorite for this opening event that he won last year during the 2006 Finals.

— Patrick Lang, USSA and The Associated Press contributed to this report

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THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment

Men's night slalom, Schladming, Austria, Jan. 30, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Byggmark, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Matt, Fischer/Nordica/Fischer
4 Berthod, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Rocca, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
7 Myhrer, Nordica/Nordica/
8 Grange, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9 Pranger, Volkl/Lange/Marker
10 Hansson, Dynastar/Lange/Look 

Men's night slalom, Schladming, Austria, Jan. 30, 2007. … It is the 24th race of the men's 38-event schedule. … The seventh of 10 scheduled slaloms. … The third slalom in four days. … The 13th World Cup slalom held at Schladming.
    It is the 26th career World Cup win for Benjamin Raich (ties with Franz Klammer for third among Austrian men). … His 12th in slalom (an Austrian record). … His fourth in slalom at Schladming, a record (Jan. 7, '99; Jan 23, '01; Jan 27, '04; and Jan. 30, 2007). … It is his third win of the season. … Second in slalom after Levi Nov. 12.
    It is the third career podium for Jens Byggmark. … Also the third in four days, having won back-to-back slaloms at Kitzbühel Jan. 27-28. … He has just eight World Cup scoring results to his credit,
all from this season. … He is the third Swedish male to win a slalom this season.
    It is the 20th career podium for Mario Matt. … 19th in slalom. … It is his second career podium at Schladming, having won in slalom March 9, 2000. … It is his fifth podium of the season. … Prior to January his best result had been 12th. … Since Jan. 1, he has not placed worse than third in any race he's completed.
    Ted Ligety matches his 10th-best result of the season in 11 races. … It is his best career result at Schladming, having been 22nd last season. … It is the first completed slalom for Bode Miller since Jan. 22, 2006, at Kitzbühel. … Miller won the Schladming slalom in 2002 and was fourth in 2004. … It is the first race he has completed since winning the Wengen downhill Jan. 13.
    Aksel Lund Svindal (13th in race) maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 780-705 over  Raich, who moves past Didier Cuche (did not race) at 677. … Miller is fourth in overall standings at 646. … Byggmark holds the lead of the slalom standings 423-365 over Raich. … Matt is third at 320. … Michael Janyk (first-run DNF) is the top North American on the slalom list in ninth at 174. … Ligety leads U.S. skiers on the list is 12th at 146. … Winning margin is .38 of a second. … Top three skiers are within the same second. … Top five within two seconds. … More men failed to finish the first run (26) than completed the race (25). … The Swedes had eight men complete the race.

Schladming men's World Cup slalom results

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	6	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	50.40	52.15	1:42.55	0.00
2	2	501101	BYGGMARK Jens	1985	SWE	50.82	52.11	1:42.93	2.26
3	1	50707	MATT Mario	1979	AUT	50.33	52.82	1:43.15	3.57
4	15	510997	BERTHOD Marc	1983	SUI	51.51	52.97	1:44.48	11.48
5	5	290478	ROCCA Giorgio	1975	ITA	50.96	53.56	1:44.52	11.72
6	18	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	50.98	53.60	1:44.58	12.08
7	10	501017	MYHRER Andre	1983	SWE	51.49	53.11	1:44.60	12.19
8	25	192665	GRANGE Jean-Baptiste	1984	FRA	52.08	52.69	1:44.77	13.21
9	19	50624	PRANGER Manfred	1978	AUT	51.70	53.11	1:44.81	13.44
10	22	500124	HANSSON Martin	1975	SWE	52.53	52.36	1:44.89	13.92
11	14	50605	HERBST Reinfried	1978	AUT	51.69	53.29	1:44.98	14.45
12	3	500656	LARSSON Markus	1979	SWE	52.20	53.07	1:45.27	16.18
13	37	560355	VALENCIC Mitja	1978	SLO	52.40	53.19	1:45.59	18.08
13	16	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	52.15	53.44	1:45.59	18.08
15	23	291145	DEVILLE Cristian	1981	ITA	52.32	53.42	1:45.74	18.98
16	27	500499	BROLENIUS Johan	1977	SWE	52.27	53.96	1:46.23	21.89
17	7	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	53.59	52.68	1:46.27	22.13
18	35	560425	VAJDIC Bernard	1980	SLO	53.44	52.85	1:46.29	22.25
19	21	510993	ALBRECHT Daniel	1983	SUI	53.06	53.39	1:46.45	23.20
20	40	50900	KOLL Alexander	1982	AUT	53.16	53.31	1:46.47	23.32
21	52	501071	NORDH Fredrik	1984	SWE	53.54	53.28	1:46.82	25.40
22	38	501116	LAHDENPERAE Anton	1985	SWE	53.64	53.33	1:46.97	26.29
23	34	501111	HARGIN Mattias	1985	SWE	53.27	57.47	1:50.74	48.72
24	57	910000	IMBODEN Urs	1975	MDA	53.66	58.45	1:52.11	56.87
25	31	532431	MILLER Bode	1977	USA	53.13	59.02	1:52.15	57.10

Did not finish 1st run:
SCHASTNIH Alexander (RUS), ZEMAN Bohumir (CZE), QUARTEL DE Alwin (NED), SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), SEMPLE Ryan (CAN), DIMITRIADIS Vassilis (GRE), BJOERGVINSSON Bjoergvin (ISL), NILSEN Andreas (NOR), VILETTA Sandro (SUI), KOGLER Stefan (GER), BURAAS Hans-Petter (NOR), BROWN Roger G P (USA), KARLSEN Truls Ove (NOR), RAZZOLI Giuliano (ITA), BIGGS Patrick (CAN), STUTZ Paul (CAN), OMMINGER Andreas (AUT), YUASA Naoki (JPN), BERGAMELLI Giancarlo (ITA), LIZEROUX Julien (FRA), GINI Marc (SUI), VOGL Alois (GER), NEUREUTHER Felix (GER), SCHOENFELDER Rainer (AUT), JANYK Michael (CAN), SASAKI Akira (JPN)

Did not finish 2nd run:
COCHRAN Jimmy (USA), THALER Patrick (ITA), BOURGEAT Pierrick (FRA), ZURBRIGGEN Silvan (SUI), KOSTELIC Ivica (CRO)

Disqualified 1st run:
PALANDER Kalle (FIN)

Did not qualify 1st run:
VAN DEN BOGAERT Jeroen (BEL), GEORGIEV Stefan (BUL), JITLOFF Tim (USA), TISSOT Maxime (FRA), SKUBE Matic (SLO), ZARDINI Edoardo (ITA), MYHRE Lars Elton (NOR), ROY Jean-Philippe (CAN), PESCOLLDERUNGG Manuel (ITA), KAUKONIEMI Tuukka (FIN), TREJBAL Filip (CZE), BAXTER Alain (GBR), LEINO Jukka (FIN), ALBRECHT Kilian (BUL), ROTHROCK Tom (USA), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), BAUMANN Romed (AUT), DRAGSIC Mitja (SLO), BANK Ondrej (CZE), ENGL Kurt (AUT), ANSELMET Alexandre (FRA), LLORACH Gaetan (FRA), ANDERSSON Oscar (SWE)

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World Cup slalom standings (after 7 of 10 races)
1. Jens Byggmark, Sweden, 423.
2. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 365.
3. Mario Matt, Austria, 320.
4. Markus Larsson, Sweden, 271.
5. Giorgio Rocca, Italy, 213.
6. Marc Berthod, Switzerland, 200.
7. Felix Neureuther, Germany, 184.
8. Kalle Palander, Finland, 183.
9. Michael Janyk, Canada, 174.
10. Manfred Moelgg, Italy, 169.
11. Andre Myhrer, Sweden, 162.
12. Ted Ligety, United States, 146.
13. Manfred Pranger, Austria, 126.
14. Silvan Zurbriggen, Switzerland, 125.
15. Jean-Baptiste Grange, France, 120.

World Cup overall standings (after 24 of 38 races)
1. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 780 points.
2. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 705.
3. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 677.
4. Bode Miller, United States, 640.
5. Peter Fill, Italy, 570.
6. Mario Matt, Austria, 440.
7. Jens Byggmark, Sweden, 439.
8. Kalle Palander, Finland, 429.
9. Marco Buechel, Liechtenstein, 407.
10. Marc Berthod, Switzerland, 395.
11. Ted Ligety, United States, 384.
12. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 377.
13. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 374.
14. Didier Defago, Switzerland, 345.
15. Hermann Maier, Austria, 331.