Ivica Kostelic extended his career-best run of form on Friday, winning a men’s World Cup super-combined event for his third victory in 12 days to stretch his lead in the overall standings.
The 31-year-old Croatian dominated the afternoon slalom run after placing fifth in the downhill, for a combined two-leg time of 2 minutes, 40.44 seconds.
Carlo Janka of Switzerland was second, 0.58 seconds back. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway trailed Kostelic by 1.34 seconds in third.
Kostelic’s 14th World Cup win came after victories in a parallel slalom event in Munich, Germany, and a slalom in Adelboden, Switzerland, this month.
“I’m just riding on this wave that I caught in Munich and going from race to race,” said Kostelic, who excels on the Wengen slalom slope. “These last two weeks have been the most successful of my career.”
With 100 race points for victory, Kostelic holds a 109-point advantage on Svindal in the standings.
Bode Miller, who edged Kostelic for the Olympic super-combined gold medal in February last year, placed sixth, 1.68 seconds down. The American got his best result of the season in a traditional World Cup race, though he was third in the rapid-fire racing event in Munich.
Ted Ligety of the US used the second-fastest slalom run to place ninth, in snow conditions he described as “horrendous” after days of rain and warm weather.
“The course is just bottomless slush,” said Ligety, who finished 23rd in the downhill.
Ligety stayed in fifth place in the overall standings.
The wet, spring-like snow perfectly suited Kostelic, who prides himself on training into May when other racers are on off-season breaks.
“I ski quite well on the soft snow,” he said, adding that being fifth after the downhill run was key to the victory.
Nearing the halfway mark, Kostelic is well poised to claim his first overall World Cup title. His sister Janica is a three-time women’s overall champion, in 2001, 2003 and 2006, but has retired from the sport and, still aged just 29, is part of Ivica’s support team.
Their father, Ante, coached both his children and set the slalom course on Friday.
Janka is the defending overall champion and equaled his best result this season.
“Ivica was too strong. I’m really happy with my day, in downhill and the slalom,” the 24-year-old said.
Svindal, who seldom scores points in the slalom, said his run was his best since winning gold in super-combined at the 2009 World Championships.
“I skied a surprisingly good slalom,” said the tall Norwegian, who has never won at Wengen. “Third place feels very good.”
First-run leader Christof Innerhofer of Italy dropped to fourth place after a painful slalom run. He sustained an elbow injury when he crashed into a wooden fence during the warm-ups.
The opening downhill saw Daniel Albrecht start a speed race for the first time since his horrific crash in downhill training two years ago in Kitzbuehel, Austria. He injured his brain and lungs, and was kept in a medically induced coma for three weeks.
Albrecht, who has come back to compete in three giant slaloms this season, ran two-thirds of the shortened Lauberhorn course before missing a gate.
“I told myself yesterday: ‘Do the race, but do it easily’ and take it as a training run,” said the 27-year-old Swiss, who was 2007 world champion in super-combined. “Just ski and look how the feeling is, and the feeling is not so bad.”
More than 18,000 fans lined the course to open the three-race Lauberhorn weekend.
Kostelic, who has two career wins and four podium finishes in slaloms in Wengen, played down his chances of an upset win in the marquee downhill.
“My best downhill ranking here is about 20th,” he said. “If I could jump 20 places, this is more like science fiction to me.”
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
AFP, MARIBOR, SLOVENIA
Yesterday’s women’s World Cup giant slalom race was canceled because of the unseasonally warm weather, with temperatures reaching 10oC, organizers said.
The decision to call off the event was taken after 25 competitors had completed the first run, with Olympic champion Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany achieving the best time ahead of Slovenia’s Tina Maze and Germany’s World Cup leader Maria Riesch.
France’s Tessa Worley, World Cup leader in the discipline, was fourth.
“Because of the very bad conditions, the race is canceled,” organizers said.
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