Bad K: Raich gets slalom win; no U.S. finishers

Benjamin Raich got his first win of the season — and the landmark 30th World Cup win of his career — in taking the Bad Kleinkirchheim slalom Sunday, Dec. 9, with a solid 0.66-second margin over Swede Jens Byggmark. Italians took the next three spots in the finish order with Manfred Moelgg achieving his third World Cup podium of the season and second in two days, Patrick Thaler posting the fastest second run time to jump from 28th after the first run to fourth, and Cristian Deville gaining a career best placing in fifth.
    It was not a pretty day for the North Americans. Ted Ligety went out in the first run, Bode Miller failed to qualify for the second run and Jimmy Cochran botched the second run and was shot off course in a series of turns at the mid-point. Paul Stutz, the lone Canadian to make the cut for the second run was among the six skiers who failed to finish.

 

BENJAMIN RAICH got his first win of the season — and the landmark 30th World Cup win of his career — in taking the Bad Kleinkirchheim slalom Sunday, Dec. 9, with a solid .66 of a second margin over Swede Jens Byggmark. Italians took the next three spots in the finish order with Manfred Moelgg achieving his third World Cup podium of the season and second in two days, Patrick Thaler posting the fastest second run time to jump from 28th after the first run to fourth, and Cristian Deville gaining a career best placing in fifth.
    Raich's victory moves him into sole possession of fourth all time for Austrians ahead of Stephan Eberharter and behind Annemarie Moser-Proell, 62, Hermann Maier, 53, and Renate Goetschl (46). He matches Croatia's Janica Kostelic with his 30 wins.
    "I let the skis go and it was a big day for me," Raich told The Canadian Press. Raich moved atop the overall standings with 405 points.
    Raich's previous best result this season was second in Lake Louise. Last year, when he finished second overall – 13 points behind champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway – Raich won six events.
    "Sometimes you have to be patient and wait for it," Raich said.
    Svindal was leading the standings when he crashed in downhill training in Beaver Creek, Colo., last week, and did not compete here.
    "The lead is good but not very important at the moment," Raich said. "There are so many races ahead before the end of the season."
    It was not a pretty day for the North Americans. Ted Ligety went out in the first run, Bode Miller failed to qualify for the second run and Jimmy Cochran botched the second run and was shot off course in a series of turns at the mid-point. Paul Stutz, the lone Canadian to make the cut for the second run was among the six skiers who failed to finish.
    Cochran had the fastest bottom section on the first run and was in the lead when he went out on the final run. A series of four turns following a break-over got him. Coach Sasha Rearick said, "He was charging up top and he skied well through the first two turns. But then he was a little 'back seat' [i.e., leaning back over his skis instead of being up over them] and got shot out. His skis hooked up and he was gone.
    "We don't have any points for the day, but I saw some good things out there. Jimmy was going for the podium and taking risks. When you attack like that, you take risks and sometimes it gets you. Last time [in Reiteralm, Austria, a month ago], he was fourth in the first run and cut back a little on his second run and finished 14th. This time he was going for it all the way," Rearick said.
    The next men's World Cup races are four races in northeastern Italy — a super G Friday and downhill Saturday in Val Gardena followed by a giant slalom Sunday and slalom Monday in Alta Badia.
    On the injury front, France's Thomas Fanara, who led Saturday's first run of GS, injured his knee in the slalom and and may have a torn ligament. Also on the injury list is Rainer Schoenfelder with a hairline fracture of the top part of his arm, and Raphael Burtin with broken ribs.

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THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's slalom, Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, Dec. 9, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Byggmark, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
4 Thaler, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
5 Deville, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
6 Herbst, Blizzard/Tecnica/Marker
7 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Zurbriggen, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
9 Pranger, Volkl/Lange/Marker
10 Grange, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

 
Men's slalom, Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, Dec. 9, 2007. … It is the tenth race of the men's 41 event 2007-08 World Cup schedule. … It is the second of 11 scheduled slaloms. … It is the second of two races set for the site. … It is the 22nd Cup race held at Bad Kleinkirchheim but just the fourth slalom and just the second men's slalom, the other won by Alberto Tomba Jan. 17, 1988.
    It is the 30th career World Cup win for Benjamin Raich. … that moves him into sole possession of fourth all time for Austrians ahead of Stephan Eberharter and behind Annemarie Moser-Proell, 62, Hermann Maier, 53, and Renate Goetschl (46). … It is his 14th career slalom win putting his second all-time among Austrians behind Marlies Schild (17) and matching him with Swede Pernilla Wiberg for 10th all time, all nations. … It is the first Austrian win at Bad Kleinkirchheim since Armin Assinger won a super G Dec. 12, 1992. … Raich won the Cup slalom titles in 2001, 2005 and 2007. … He also won the Olympic gold medal in slalom in 2006 and the World Championship gold medal in slalom in 2005.
    It is the fourth career World Cup podium for Jens Byggmark, all in slalom and all in the 2007 calendar year. … It is his first venture into the top 10 this season.
    It is the seventh career podium for Manfred Moelgg. … His sixth in slalom. … It is his third podium of the season and second in two days having placed third in the first slalom at Reiteralm Nov. 11 and second in GS at Bad Kleinkirchheim Dec. 8. … It is the eighth Italian Cup podium of the season.
    No North Americans completed both runs. … 32 skiers failed to finish the first run and eight more either failed to finish or were disqualified in the second run.
    Raich takes control of the men's overall standings 406-332 over Daniel Albrecht (tied for 16th in race). … Didier Cuche (did not race) is third at 273 and Moelgg takes fourth at 262. … Ted Ligety (2nd run DNF) and Bode Miller (DNQ 2nd) are sixth and seventh in the standings at 230 and 194pts respectively. … Raich also controls the slalom standings 136-120 over Moelgg. …Marc Gini (18th in race) is third at 113pts. … Jimmy Cochran in 17th with 18pts is the top North American in the men's slalom standings.
    Winning margin is .66 of a second. … Top five are within a second. …
top 17 within two seconds.

 

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	2	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	48.34	46.12	1:34.46	0.00
2	5	501101	BYGGMARK Jens	1985	SWE	48.58	46.54	1:35.12	4.26
3	1	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	48.69	46.49	1:35.18	4.65
4	41	290732	THALER Patrick	1978	ITA	50.08	45.27	1:35.35	5.75
5	17	291145	DEVILLE Cristian	1981	ITA	49.12	46.32	1:35.44	6.33
6	19	50605	HERBST Reinfried	1978	AUT	48.69	46.77	1:35.46	6.46
7	14	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	49.11	46.43	1:35.54	6.97
8	10	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	49.76	45.87	1:35.63	7.56
9	12	50624	PRANGER Manfred	1978	AUT	48.97	46.67	1:35.64	7.62
10	6	192665	GRANGE Jean-Baptiste	1984	FRA	49.04	46.70	1:35.74	8.27
11	9	201702	NEUREUTHER Felix	1984	GER	48.65	47.11	1:35.76	8.40
12	3	500656	LARSSON Markus	1979	SWE	48.67	47.37	1:36.04	10.20
13	8	501017	MYHRER Andre	1983	SWE	49.30	46.84	1:36.14	10.85
14	60	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	49.98	46.17	1:36.15	10.91
15	18	191459	LIZEROUX Julien	1979	FRA	49.64	46.67	1:36.31	11.95
16	20	300804	MINAGAWA Kentaro	1977	JPN	49.97	46.43	1:36.40	12.53
16	16	510993	ALBRECHT Daniel	1983	SUI	49.16	47.24	1:36.40	12.53
18	15	511127	GINI Marc	1984	SUI	49.37	47.13	1:36.50	13.17
19	48	560371	DRAGSIC Mitja	1979	SLO	50.19	46.37	1:36.56	13.56
20	34	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	49.83	47.02	1:36.85	15.43
21	11	510997	BERTHOD Marc	1983	SUI	49.51	47.66	1:37.17	17.50
22	22	301312	SASAKI Akira	1981	JPN	49.97	47.34	1:37.31	18.40
23	45	511352	VILETTA Sandro	1986	SUI	49.75	47.57	1:37.32	18.47
24	66	53831	HIRSCHER Marcel	1989	AUT	50.14	49.93	1:40.07	36.23

 

Did not finish 1st run : SANDELL Marcus (FIN), HOROSHILOV Alexandr (RUS), GEORGIEV Stefan (BUL), BAXTER Alain (GBR), SAMSAL Dalibor (CRO), PAQUIN Pierre (FRA), BJOERGVINSSON Bjoergvin (ISL), COUSINEAU Julien (CAN), BAXTER Noel (GBR), IKUTA Yasuhiro (JPN), KAUKONIEMI Tuukka (FIN), OBERT Anthony (FRA), PESCOLLDERUNGG Manuel (ITA), KRYZL Krystof (CZE), BARRETT Scott (CAN), NORDH Fredrik (SWE), IMBODEN Urs (MDA), JANKA Carlo (SUI), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), ENGL Kurt (AUT), ANSELMET Alexandre (FRA), FANARA Thomas (FRA), TREJBAL Filip (CZE), BANK Ondrej (CZE), BIGGS Patrick (CAN), FILL Peter (ITA), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO), VOGL Alois (GER), VAJDIC Bernard (SLO), HANSSON Martin (SWE), LIGETY Ted (USA), PALANDER Kalle (FIN)

Did not finish 2nd run : STUTZ Paul (CAN), RAZZOLI Giuliano (ITA), BROLENIUS Johan (SWE), LAHDENPERAE Anton (SWE), COCHRAN Jimmy (USA), MATT Mario (AUT)

Disqualified 1st run : ANDERSSON Oscar (SWE), KOLL Alexander (AUT)

Did not qualify 1st run : SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), KANG Min Heuk (KOR), MCDONALD Paul (USA), MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas (FRA), YUASA Naoki (JPN), DREIER Christoph (AUT), MARSHALL Cody (USA), OMMINGER Andreas (AUT), HARGIN Mattias (SWE), ALBRECHT Kilian (BUL), KELLEY Tim (USA), KUCERA John (CAN), MILLER Bode (USA), KARLSEN Truls Ove (NOR)