Ivica Kostelic at his best

Ivica Kostelic certainly achieved one of his greatest performances ever in Kranjska Gora where he won his second slalom of the season less than an hour after Janica’s triumph in Bormio – what a great way to celebrated her 21st birthday!
It was more than a dream which came through for him in that exciting World Cup slalom raced on the treacherous Podkoren course near Kranjska Gora. The defending slalom World Cup champion beat by 27/100 of a second Austria’s Rainer Schoenfelder, the winner in Park City, while France’s Olympic Champion Jean Pierre Vidal, the best here last winter, was 3rd at 32/100 after a difficult second run.
Ivica increased his lead on his closest rivals in the slalom standings 38 points on Schoenfelder and 173 on Vidal!

This slalom of the season was also marked by the third consecutive failure in slalom of Bode Miller who straddled a gate at the beginning of the slope. The US skier missed a great chance to find back his best rhythm also in slalom and increase his lead on Stephan Eberharter in the Overall World Cup standings!
Finland’s Kalle Palander was 4th – the 1999 slalom World Champion as one a second behind the podium but at least he showed that he found back his momentum after a series of ups and downs in recent seasons.
Also in progress is his successor, Mario Matt, who returned on course after injuring himself twice at a shoulder. He has not competed for almost a year and his 14th place will boost his moral. As the defending World Champion, he doesn’t need to qualify within the Austrian team for the coming Worlds at St Moritz! Six of this teammates finished ahead on him in that race including the downhiller Michael Walchhofer, 10th! Two other skiers with higher number also reached the top-10 – Italy’s Giancarlo Bergamelli 7th with bib 38 and Canada’s Thomas Grandi, 9th with bib 36.

Yet the battle for supremacy just started in slalom – there are four more slaloms scheduled this month and two more after St Moritz before the Finals in Lillehammer. “JP” Vidal twice 5th before this 3rd place, was incredibly fast in the second run before making a major mistake which almost threw him out of the course. “I’m lucky to be on the podium” he admitted. “It was a bad error but I felt confident and I wanted to repeat my victory from last year” he said. “I felt some pain at a knee earlier this season but now everything is fine again. I’m looking forward for more exciting races with Ivica and Bode Miller who will certainly soon find back his best form in slalom. We had a great time last winter in places as here, Schladming or Flachau and we are still pretty fast this season”.

Yet Schoenfelder wants to be part of the fight for the Crystal Globe and the gold medal at St Moritz. His confirmed that his new Fischer skis are pretty fast too in slalom and he looks to win soon another slalom after Park City. He will be charging in places like Kitzbühel, where he won last winter, or Schladming, where the greatest night slalom of the season takes place in front of more than 40 000 spectators!