Ivica Kostelic of Croatia and Maria Pietilae-Holmner of Sweden won the first parallel slalom World Cup events on Sunday, which were open only to the top 16 Alpine skiers.
Kostelic, a slalom specialist, beat Julien Lizeroux of France in two heats in the men’s big final by a total of 1.61 seconds to claim 100 points for the overall World Cup standings and 40,000 Swiss francs (US$43,000).
“You really have to be aware of your senses,” Kostelic said. “You see and hear the other skier.”
PHOTO: EPA
The US’ Bode Miller won the men’s small final, defeating Felix Neureuther of Germany by 0.05 seconds after leading by 0.25 seconds in the first heat.
In the women’s big final, Pietilae-Holmner trailed Tina Maze of Slovenia by 0.12 seconds after the first heat, but came back to win by 0.47 seconds.
Elisabeth Goergl of Austria beat Daniela Merighetti of Italy in the women’s small final.
PHOTO: AFP
The event pitted skiers competing side by side down a 200m course that contained 20 gates. More than 25,000 fans attended Olympiapark in downtown Munich, which used the event to promote its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Miller praised the atmosphere and described the racing as exciting, but wasn’t an uncritical fan of the event.
“I genuinely hope it’s not the future of ski racing. It’s not the tradition of ski racing,” Miller said. “It’s a good component of the season to build interest, to bring ski racing to a city and it’s really positive, but there’s no way you can call a season of this ‘World Cup.’”
“We need to move in the opposite direction. This is for show. To balance this you need the longest, most challenging and difficult hills as well,” Miller added.
Michael Walchhofer of Austria went out in the first round, but was able to overtake Silvan Zurbriggen on top of the overall World Cup standings, with 409 points to 395 for the Swiss skier.
US racer Ted Ligety is third with 336 after losing in the first round to Lizeroux.
Miller is 12th overall with 195 points, while Kostelic jumped to seventh with 279.
On the women’s side, Pietilae-Holmner beat Lindsey Vonn in the quarter-finals after the American stumbled in the first run.
“I have done these events before,” Pietilae-Holmner said. “I just decided to go for it and it worked. I had nothing to lose.”
Despite losing, Vonn was happy to have been part of the event.
“It was really fun,” she said. “The atmosphere was amazing. There was so many people. I’ve never seen an event like this before. So it was definitely a fun night.”
Overall World Cup leader Maria Riesch of Germany lost in the first round to Merighetti, but remained on top of the standings with 753 points, 106 ahead of Vonn.
Goergl is third with 483 points.
TOUR DE SKI
AP, OBERSTDORF, GERMANY
Emil Joensson of Sweden and Slovenia’s Petra Majdic won the third stage races of the cross-country Tour de Ski on Sunday.
Joensson held off Canadian Devon Kershaw in a photo finish at the 1.2km classic sprint in Oberstdorf, Germany, winning in 2 minutes, 34.1 seconds. Dario Cologna of Switzerland was third, 0.3 seconds behind.
Sixth-place Alexander Legkov remains overall World Cup leader with 610 points, ahead of Cologna on 596. Marcus Hellner of Sweden is third with 393.
Cologna leads the Tour de Ski standings after three of eight races with a time of 49 minutes, 09.9 seconds. Kershaw is 3.7 seconds behind and Legkov trails Cologna by 23.1 seconds.
Majdic won the women’s 1.2km classic sprint in 2 minutes, 50.8 seconds. Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk was 4.3 seconds behind Majdic. Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen of Norway was 4.8 seconds adrift.
Kowalczyk extended her lead in the Tour standings to 44.4 seconds ahead of Majdic. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen of Finland is third — 1 minute, 0.3 seconds back.
Kowalczyk was unable to catch overall World Cup leader Marit Bjoergen of Norway, who was not taking part in the Tour.
Bjoergen leads with 760 points to 685 for Kowalczyk. Arianna Follis of Italy is third with 474 points.
The Tour involves a grueling eight races in 10 days in five locations in Germany and Italy. It was to continue yesterday with the 10km and 20km mixed pursuits in Oberstdorf.
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