Kjetil Jansrud won the men’s World Cup super-G race on the Olympic course in Kvitfjell, Norway, yesterday, completing a Norwegian one-two finish with Aksel Lund Svindal.
Jansrud finished in 1 minute, 34.02 seconds. Svindal was 0.21 seconds behind, with Beat Feuz of Switzerland in third, 0.26 seconds behind the winner.
It was a first World Cup win for Jansrud, who was beaten by the smallest of margins two days in a row. He finished third in Friday’s super-G race behind joint winners Feuz and Klaus Kroell. On Saturday, Kroell beat Jansrud into second place in the downhill.
Photo: AFP
“It’s a lot of emotions right now,” said Jansrud, who has nine career podium finishes. “What can I say? I think I skied as well as I can, I don’t know how I could have skied any better. For now, I just want to enjoy this. I have no idea when the last time two Norwegians were in the top. This has been lacking, it’s definitely special to be two up there.”
In Saturday’s downhill, Jansrud and Svindal both made the podium, with Svindal taking third place.
Jansrud, who has been battling a back injury, said he intended to race in next weekend’s giant slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
Photo: EPA
With his second-placed finish, Svindal extended his lead in the super-G standings over Switzerland’s Didier Cuche, who finished sixth. Svindal leads Cuche by 42 points with one race remaining at the World Cup finals in Schladming, Austria.
“It’s looking good, but it isn’t over. I will have to make sure to ski well in the next [super-G] race,” Svindal said.
In the overall World Cup standings, Feuz climbed to 1,250 points with the third-placed finish, extending his lead over second-placed Marcel Hirscher to 115 points. The Austrian technical specialist did not take part in the super-G.
Croatian Ivica Kostelic, also not racing here as he recovers from a knee injury, is third, 207 points behind Feuz.
WOMEN’S SLALOM
AP, OFTERSCHWANG, Germany
Erin Mielzynski of Canada won the women’s slalom in Ofterschwang, Germany, yesterday for her first career World Cup victory.
Resi Stiegler of the US finished in a career-best second place, while Marlies Schild of Austria placed third winning the slalom World Cup title for the season.
First-run leader Tina Maze of Slovenia failed to finish the second run, while overall World Cup leader Lindsey Vonn of the US fell on the first run.
Mielzynski’s previous best results were a pair of 13th-placed finishes last year — in a slalom in December in Courchevel, France, and another slalom earlier in February in Zwiesel, Germany.
Stiegler, whose promising career was set back by several serious injuries, had a pair of fourth-placed finishes in 2007, in a slalom and a super-combined.
Lena Duerr of Germany, second after the first run, dropped to sixth. Mikaela Shiffrin of the US, in a tie for third after the first run, made a mistake in the second to finish bottom.
Frida Hansdotter of Sweden, who shared third after the first run, fell back to seventh.
Schild, winner of six slaloms this season, was assured of the title when Maze failed to finish.
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