Wengen: Austrians roll in slalom, Pranger wins.

The Austrian boys are on a slalom tear.

Manfred Pranger and Reinfried Herbst swapped the first and second places they scored last weekend in Adelboden with Pranger finishing first and Herbst second in the Lauberhorn slalom at Wengen, Switzerland Sunday.

It was nearly an Austrian sweep as Croatian Ivica Kostelic was just able to stay ahead of a hard second run charge by 19 year old Marcel Hirscher to get third. World Cup overall leader Benjamin Raich was fifth, but nearly a full second back of Pranger. Sixth finishing Jean-Baptiste Grange, who looked invincible in slalom earlier this season, was 1.02 back.

The Austrian boys are on a slalom tear.

Manfred Pranger and Reinfried Herbst swapped the first and second places they scored last weekend in Adelboden with Pranger finishing first and Herbst second in the Lauberhorn slalom at Wengen, Switzerland Sunday.

It was nearly an Austrian sweep as Croatian Ivica Kostelic was just able to stay ahead of a hard second run charge by 19 year old Marcel Hirscher to get third. World Cup overall leader Benjamin Raich was fifth, but nearly a full second back of Pranger. Sixth finishing Jean-Baptiste Grange, who looked invincible in slalom earlier this season, was 1.02 back.

It was a great race for the Canadian team. Michael Janyk and Julien Cousineau finished eighth and ninth respectively to uphold North American honor. American Ted Ligerty was 12th, the unretired Thomas Grandi 17th and Jimmy Cochran 18th. Canadian Trevor White got 22nd, but did not score what would have been his first career Cup points.

“The trend shows that we are getting to where we want to be on the tech side,” said Canadian Head Coach Paul Kristofic. “It’s been there all along in training and we have all seen it. Now to start showing some strength in races is great. But, we’ve still got a ways to go.”

The two Austrians reveled in the two place sweep. Pranger torn knee ligaments in a fall at Alta Badia last season and has been working since to get back into form. Saying he had almost stopped hoping for a return to form, Pranger has now collected three Cup wins, the others from back-to-back slaloms at Kitzbuehel and Schladming in 2005. It makes, he told Reuters “A fine little collection.”




Herbst knows something about the fight back from injury having missed the 2007 season, making their celebration all the sweeter.

The win was the first in the Wengen slalom for an Austrian since 2004 when Raich turned the trick and it came at a good time. After a disasterous set of results in the other Wengen events, Austria was in need of some good news.

“We told ourselves we really needed to set the record straight,” Pranger told Reuters. “Beware, the Empire strikes back.”

Austrians have only won the race six times since it became a World Cup staple. Hirscher likely solidified a starting spot in the World Championship slalom next month.

American Bode Miller struggled in both runs. He was a second and three quarters out after the first run and tried to ramp it up in the second. He had his skis slide out from under him, recovered, then had them slip out again for a second run DNF.

Ted Ligety had a huge first run mistake then charged for a decent first run result of eighth. “On the fourth gate of the first run Ted wheelied out,” said coach Sasha Rearick. “He made an excellent recovery and skied the bottom really well. His second run was solid, but there was less charge.”

Watch Pranger’s runs in the FIS videos on the right side of our front page.

---

The SCOOP

Equipment
Men’s Slalom, Wengen, Switzerland, Jan. 18, 2009
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Pranger, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
2 Herbst, Blizzard/Tecnica/Marker
3 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
4 Hirscher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Grange, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
7 Hargin, Nordica/Nordica/
8 Janyk, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9 Cousineau, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
10 Rocca, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

Men’s slalom, Wengen Switzerland, Jan. 18, 2009. … It is the 79th running of the Lauberhorn slalom. … It is the 20th race of the men’s 38 race 2009 World Cup schedule. … The fifth of 10 scheduled slaloms. … It is the 85th World Cup race held at least in part at Wengen and the 30th Cup slalom at the site.

It is the third career win for Manfred Pranger. … His first since winning back-to-back slaloms at Kitzbuehel and Schladming in 2005. … It is his fourth score of the season (all in slalom) and second consecutive podium having placed second at Adelboden last week. … It is the seventh time an Austrian has won the tradition Lauberhorn slalom. … The first time since Benjamin Raich won in 2004.

It is the seventh career World Cup podium for Reinfried Herbst. … and second in a week, having won at Adelboden Jan. 11. … It was his third score of the season all of them coming in January.

It is the 26th career World Cup podium for Ivica Kostelic. … His 21st in slalom. … It is the fifth time he has been on a slalom podium at Wengen. … It is his fourth podium of the season and third in slalom.

It is the sixth best career result for Michael Janyk and his best of the season. … It is a career best Cup result for Julien Cousineau edging by one placing slalom results at Wengen in 2003 and 2004. … Ted Ligety matches his 18th best career slalom result. … He has finished third and fifth in previous Wengen slaloms in 2006 and 2008 respectively. … He has now scored in a dozen races this season. … It is the best placing since retirement for Thomas Grandi. … beating his only other score this season of 25th at Alta Badia. … It is his sixth scoring result in a slalom at Wengen. … It is the 20th career scoring result for Jimmy Cochran. … His first at Wengen. … His last five scores have all come in slalom. … two of them this season. … Canadian Trevor White finished 22nd but was more than nine seconds out and did not receive World Cup points.

Benjamin Raich (fifth in race) maintains the World Cup overall standings lead 638-576 over Jean-Baptiste Grange (sixth in race). … Kostelic moves ahead of Aksel Svindal to third with 546pts. … Bode Miller is the top American in ninth with 385pts. … Grange holds on to the lead of the slalom standings 349-305 over Kostelic. … Pranger moves to third at 219 and Herbst to fourth with 216. … Miller is the top American on the list in 13th with 95pts.

Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup standings 3233-2490 over Switzerland. … Italy is third at 1865. … The U.S. is fifth at 1311 and Canada sixth at 868.

---

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	11	50624	PRANGER Manfred	1978	AUT	48.10	52.26	1:40.36	0.00
2	3	50605	HERBST Reinfried	1978	AUT	48.44	52.26	1:40.70	2.03
3	2	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	48.80	51.95	1:40.75	2.33
4	10	53831	HIRSCHER Marcel	1989	AUT	49.25	51.59	1:40.84	2.87
5	1	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	48.60	52.69	1:41.29	5.56
6	7	192665	GRANGE Jean-Baptiste	1984	FRA	48.66	52.72	1:41.38	6.10
7	19	501111	HARGIN Mattias	1985	SWE	49.90	51.49	1:41.39	6.16
8	34	102435	JANYK Michael	1982	CAN	50.10	51.59	1:41.69	7.95
9	45	102239	COUSINEAU Julien	1981	CAN	49.50	52.21	1:41.71	8.07
10	15	290478	ROCCA Giorgio	1975	ITA	50.01	51.74	1:41.75	8.31
11	8	291145	DEVILLE Cristian	1981	ITA	49.66	52.14	1:41.80	8.61
12	14	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	49.12	52.73	1:41.85	8.91
13	5	191459	LIZEROUX Julien	1979	FRA	48.98	52.92	1:41.90	9.21
14	46	50981	HOERL Wolfgang	1983	AUT	49.52	52.45	1:41.97	9.63
15	24	511127	GINI Marc	1984	SUI	49.46	52.53	1:41.99	9.74
16	23	500499	BROLENIUS Johan	1977	SWE	49.89	52.11	1:42.00	9.80
17	31	100115	GRANDI Thomas	1972	CAN	49.83	52.49	1:42.32	11.72
18	30	534040	COCHRAN Jimmy	1981	USA	49.83	52.62	1:42.45	12.50
19	20	560425	VAJDIC Bernard	1980	SLO	49.79	52.77	1:42.56	13.15
20	72	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	49.84	52.74	1:42.58	13.27
21	6	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	48.90	54.12	1:43.02	15.90
22	35	102922	WHITE Trevor	1984	CAN	49.95	59.88	1:49.83	56.62
23	9	501017	MYHRER Andre	1983	SWE	49.40	1:02.45	1:51.85	68.69

Did not start 1st run: ROMAR Andreas (FIN)

Did not finish 1st run: GEORGIEV Georgi (BUL), WAGNER Hannes (GER), MINAGAWA Kentaro (JPN), SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), NORDH Fredrik (SWE), OBERT Anthony (FRA), KARLSEN Truls Ove (NOR), LEINO Jukka (FIN), FANARA Thomas (FRA), VRABLIK Martin (CZE), ANDERSSON Magnus (SWE), TREJBAL Filip (CZE), MCDONALD Paul (USA), ANDERSSON Oscar (SWE), VOGEL Markus (SUI), VILETTA Sandro (SUI), KOGLER Stefan (GER), SASAKI Akira (JPN), THALER Patrick (ITA), MATT Mario (AUT)

Did not finish 2nd run: SVINDAL Aksel Lund (NOR), MILLER Bode (USA), BYGGMARK Jens (SWE), NEUREUTHER Felix (GER)

Disqualified 1st run: RAZZOLI Giuliano (ITA)

Disqualified 2nd run: BIGGS Patrick (CAN), MYHRE Lars Elton (NOR), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO)

Did not qualify 1st run: LAHDENPERAE Anton (SWE), GSCHWENTER Dominik (AUT), OMMINGER Andreas (AUT), ALBRECHT Kilian (BUL), IMBODEN Urs (MDA), MARSHALL Cody (USA), MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas (FRA), YUASA Naoki (JPN), JITLOFF Tim (USA), KELLEY Tim (USA), KRYZL Krystof (CZE), ANSELMET Alexandre (FRA), TISSOT Stephane (FRA), BECHTER Patrick (AUT), FILL Peter (ITA), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), ZURBRIGGEN Silvan (SUI), DRAGSIC Mitja (SLO), ALBRECHT Daniel (SUI)