Beaver Creek: Myhrer, Janyk, Neureuther rule SL

There’s some young blood on the World Cup men’s circuit, and a trio of slalom hotshots made that crisply clear Sunday under crisply blue skies in the finale at Birds of Prey.
Sweden’s Andre Myhrer had a wild but super-fast first run and held on in the second run for his first career victory. American Ted Ligety, second after the first run, did not finish the second run, and Bode Miller was a DNF in run one.
Myhrer, 23, edged Canadian Michael Janyk, age 24, and German Felix Neureuther, 22.

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado — There’s some young blood on the World Cup men’s circuit, and a trio of slalom hotshots made that crisply clear Sunday under crisply blue skies in the finale at Birds of Prey.
   Sweden’s Andre Myhrer had a wild but super-fast first run and held on in the second run for his first career victory. American Ted Ligety, second after the first run, did not finish the second run, and Bode Miller was a DNF in run one.
   Myhrer, 23, edged Canadian Michael Janyk, age 24, and German Felix Neureuther, 22. His winning two-run time was 1 minute, 48.60 seconds, .73 better than Janyk and 1.40 ahead of the German.
    Myhrer had two previous World Cup podiums, in 2005 slaloms in Schladming and Kranjska Gora. In December 2004, he was fifth in a slalom on Birds of Prey. In the first run, Myhrer smoked a field of 70 racers with a time of 52.59 seconds. Germany’s Alois Vogl pushed into second, a whopping .57 back, but was later disqualified for straddling a gate, boosting Ligety into second. But a third of the way into his second run, Ligety hooked a ski and couldn’t stay on course.
    “It was a big lead, but you can’t throw on the hand brake and slide out so you have to go for it,” Myhrer said. “I took it a little bit easier in the hard parts and then I tried to push it in the easy parts.”
    Slalom stars Benni Raich of Austria and Giorgio Rocca of Italy did not survive the first run.
    Janyk had never before reached the podium. At two previous Beaver Creek slaloms, he was a DNF (2005) and did not qualify for second run (2004). His previous career best was a fourth in slalom at Shigakogen, Japan, on March 10, 2006. Canada also had Thomas Grandi in a tie for fifth Sunday.
    “I have all my friends here, 13 of them came down. And they’re all in the stands, so to do it in front of them, my mom’s here, my sister’s here. It’s just unbelievable,” said Janyk, who hails from Whistler and is one of the more colorful characters on the circuit.
    Janyk sported a Canadian cowboy hat in the finish area, and his smile might have spanned from Quebec City to Vancouver. As for that smile? “I don’t think it’s coming off anytime soon," he beamed.
    Last week, Janyk won a NorAm slalom at Keystone, an hour east of Beaver Creek. “I think it is just building confidence," he said. "I knew I was skiing well and just to get down with that just kept building the confidence toward this. It’s a great day. I can’t put it into words.”
    It was the fifth top 10 but first podium for Neureuther. His previous best was sixth in the 2004 Birds of Prey slalom. He is the son of 1976 Olympics triple medalist Rosi Mittermaier and slalom champion Christian Neureuther.
    “The first thing I will do is call my grandfather [who turns 95 today],” Neureuther said. Asked if he was nervous the news would give his grandfather a heart attack, he said, “No, I’m just a little afraid he will drink too much tonight.”
    Three years ago, Neureuther suffered from a heart infection from training too hard. “I was out for like three and half months and I had to take really hard medicine. But now it’s really good and there’s no problem,” the cheerful German said.
    When might win No. 1 come for Neureuther? “I don’t know. I really don’t,” he said. “Maybe when everybody’s skiing out and I will make a safety run I will win.”
    Raich hooked the second gate in and was done immediately, cementing a dismal week here for the defending World Cup overall champion. The Austrians had never failed to win a race during a Birds of Prey tour stop since the circuit began coming here in 1997. That streak ended Sunday. Raich was a DNF in the slalom portion of the combined Thursday, did not race in Friday’s downhill, and placed 11th in the GS.
    “This is a thing that shouldn’t happen but sometimes it just does," Raich said. "A similar thing happened in Wengen [Switzerland] last season, but I think I missed the third or fourth gate. Today it was only the second.”
    Defending World Cup slalom champion Rocca also straddled, though he got a little further down the course.
    “I was going from ice to snow and my skis gripped the snow,” said Rocca, who is returning from a knee injury. “I jerked forward and my ski hit the pole and then I was out."
    Miller, winner of Friday’s downhill, continued to struggle in the most technical discipline. The last time Miller finished a slalom was in January in Kitzbühel, Austria, where he finished 18th. Miller has not won a slalom since Dec. 13, 2004, in Sestriere, Italy.
   Some of the young Americans failed to qualify for the second run. Tom Rothrock, Roger Brown, Jake Zamansky and Tim Kelley did not finish run No. 1.
    U.S. head men’s coach Phil McNichol shook his head, noting, “Maybe we used up our good fortune earlier in the week, but it was a disappointing end to another outstanding week in Beaver Creek. We get these great crowds — and another one today — and these awesome snow conditions … and then sometimes slalom just leaves me pulling my hair out.
   “But we focus on the positive, and this definitely was another great trip to Beaver Creek. We have some really good momentum now — our first win, our first podiums of the season [Miller winning downhill with Steve Nyman third, and Ligety third in GS] — and we want to keep it rolling,” McNichol said.
   The next men’s race is a super combined next Sunday at Reiteralm, Austria. The race — which will match a super G (instead of a downhill) with a one-run slalom — has been moved from Val d’Isere, France, because of poor snow conditions.

— SR's Sam Flickinger, Hilary Lund and Hank McKee contributed to this report

THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment

Men’s Slalom, Beaver Creek, Dec. 3, 2006
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Myhrer, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
2 Janyk, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
3 Neureuther, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Albrecht, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
5 Byggmark, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Grandi, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
7 Anselmet, Dynastar/Lange/Look
7 Pranger, Volkl/Lang/Marker
9 Lahdenperae, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
10 Gini, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker

Men’s slalom, Beaver Creek Colo., Dec. 3, 2006. … It is seventh r
ace of the men’s 38 event 2007 World Cup schedule. … It is the second of 10 scheduled slaloms. … It is the final race of a four race set at Beaver Creek.
    It is the first career win for Andre Myhrer. … He is 23 from Ostersund. … He owns two previous slalom podiums, a second from Kranjska Gora Feb 27, 2005 and a third from Schladming, Jan. 24, 2006. … He finished fourth in the Olympic slalom at Sestriere. … And was fifth in the 2005 World Championship slalom. … It is the 89^th slalom win for Sweden, but he is just the 11^th Swede to win.
    It is the first career podium for Michael Janyk. … His previous best had been a fourth at Shigakogen, Japan, March 10, 2006. … He has just 13 career World Cup scoring results. In his last three completed races he has finished 4^th (Shigakogen), 7^th (Levi Nov. 12) and second here. … He leads the slalom standings. … No Canadian has ever won a World Cup slalom title.
    It is the first career podium for Felix Neureuther. … His previous best had been sixth in slalom at Beaver Creek Dec. 5, 2004. … Three of his best six results have come at Beaver Creek.
    Fifth matches the 11^th best career result for Thomas Grandi. … He had never placed fifth or higher and been beaten by a teammate. … It is the first career World Cup scoring result for Paul Stutz. … It is the ninth scoring result for James Cochran and his third this week.
    Aksel Lund Svindal (17^th in race) leads the overall World Cup standings 235-204 over Didier Cuche (did not race). … Bode Miller remains the top American in sixth place with 142 points. … Janyk leads the slalom standings 116-100 over both Benjamin Raich (a first run DNF) and Myhrer. … Winning margin was .73 of a second. … Third place was 1.40 out. … Fifth place was more than two seconds back.

Beaver Creek men's World Cup slalom results

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	9	501017	MYHRER Andre	1983	SWE	52.59	56.01	1:48.60	0.00
2	16	102435	JANYK Michael	1982	CAN	53.61	55.72	1:49.33	4.10
3	17	201702	NEUREUTHER Felix	1984	GER	53.45	56.55	1:50.00	7.86
4	26	510993	ALBRECHT Daniel	1983	SUI	54.25	56.12	1:50.37	9.94
5	35	501101	BYGGMARK Jens	1985	SWE	54.16	56.49	1:50.65	11.51
5	4	100115	GRANDI Thomas	1972	CAN	54.10	56.55	1:50.65	11.51
7	42	191640	ANSELMET Alexandre	1980	FRA	55.23	55.47	1:50.70	11.80
7	19	50624	PRANGER Manfred	1978	AUT	53.49	57.21	1:50.70	11.80
9	39	501116	LAHDENPERAE Anton	1985	SWE	54.66	56.18	1:50.84	12.58
10	40	511127	GINI Marc	1984	SUI	54.84	56.02	1:50.86	12.69
11	25	291145	DEVILLE Cristian	1981	ITA	54.95	56.01	1:50.96	13.26
12	6	180251	PALANDER Kalle	1977	FIN	53.90	57.10	1:51.00	13.48
13	34	192665	GRANGE Jean-Baptiste	1984	FRA	54.78	56.25	1:51.03	13.65
14	8	50707	MATT Mario	1979	AUT	54.08	56.99	1:51.07	13.87
15	24	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	54.09	57.08	1:51.17	14.44
16	28	50997	OMMINGER Andreas	1983	AUT	54.64	56.71	1:51.35	15.45
17	15	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	54.29	57.16	1:51.45	16.01
18	33	420148	KARLSEN Truls Ove	1975	NOR	54.66	57.28	1:51.94	18.76
19	54	150594	TREJBAL Filip	1985	CZE	54.82	57.44	1:52.26	20.56
20	43	102727	STUTZ Paul	1983	CAN	55.18	57.26	1:52.44	21.57
21	46	560425	VAJDIC Bernard	1980	SLO	54.69	57.84	1:52.53	22.07
22	29	534040	COCHRAN Jimmy	1981	USA	55.23	58.06	1:53.29	26.34

Did not start 1st run

FILL Peter (ITA)

Did not finish 1st run :

SIMONCELLI Davide (ITA), RAJALA Jukka (FIN), GORZA Ales (SLO), LEINO Jukka (FIN), KELLEY Tim (USA), SPORN Andrej (SLO), KOGLER Stefan (GER), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), ROY Jean-Philippe (CAN), ZAMANSKY Jake (USA), BROWN Roger G P (USA), ENGL Kurt (AUT), MYHRE Lars Elton (NOR), BAXTER Noel (GBR), KOLL Alexander (AUT), BANK Ondrej (CZE), ROTHROCK Tom (USA), BIGGS Patrick (CAN), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), BAUMANN Romed (AUT), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO), DREIER Christoph (AUT), HARGIN Mattias (SWE), MILLER Bode (USA), BURAAS Hans-Petter (NOR), HANSSON Martin (SWE), SASAKI Akira (JPN), MINAGAWA Kentaro (JPN), RAICH Benjamin (AUT), ROCCA Giorgio (ITA), LARSSON Markus (SWE)

Did not finish 2nd run :

SEMPLE Ryan (CAN), DRAGSIC Mitja (SLO), THALER Patrick (ITA), BOURGEAT Pierrick (FRA), SCHOENFELDER Rainer (AUT), KOSTELIC Ivica (CRO), TISSOT Stephane (FRA), LIGETY Ted (USA)

Disqualified 1st run :

YUASA Naoki (JPN), VOGL Alois (GER)

Did not qualify 1st run :

ZRNCIC-DIM Natko (CRO), IMBODEN Urs (MDA), GRUBELNIK Drago (SLO), LLORACH Gaetan (FRA), MOELGG Manfred (ITA), BROLENIUS Johan (SWE)