Sestriere,
Men’s “KO” slalom
Incredible victory for Ivica Kostelic
Ivica
Kostelic probably celebrated his
most amazing World Cup victory in
today’s “KO” Slalom
in Sestriere after beating Italy’s
Giorgio Rocca by only 1/100 of a
second in the last of four runs
set on the Kandahar course.
The skier from Zagreb, who scored
his very first World Cup points
in this slope in December 1998,
was almost forced to skip this race
after twisting his back in the morning
while warming-up.
Norway’s Truls Ove Karlsen
was 3rd ahead of the 1998 Olympic
Champion Hans-Petter Buraas, a former
winner here. Buraas, who seriously
injured himself at his neck in a
crash last year, is achieving a
promising comeback.
He beat his successor, Jean Pierre
Vidal, 5th at 40/100. All the othre
favorites including Bode Miller,
Rainer Schoenfelder, Pierrick Bourgeat
or Benjamin Raich failed to qualified
in the first or in the following
runs.
Janica’s advises help Ivica
Ivica
suffered so much that he had to
be helped by his trainers to go
back at the hotel to receive some
treatment but he was not able to
inspect the first qualification
run along the other skiers.
In the hotel he was strongly encouraged
by Janica who also helped him to
put on his ski boots when it was
time to go at the start of the race.
It was already a sensation for him
to qualify among the top-30 in this
first run won by Italy’s Rocca.
Ivica only came in 9th, losing 1,25
seconds on his Italian friend.
The Croatian Team took much care
of Ivica after this first round
during the four hours left until
the next start.
He felt good enough to go back at
the hill to race against his two
rivals who he eliminated after two
strong runs , first Italy’s
Hannes-Paul Schmid then Reinfried
Herbst.
He was the last of the nine last
qualified racers to start in the
decisive run– at this point,
Rocca was in the lead and the crowd
was hoping that he would stay in
the lead until the end.
In fact, “Ivo” was still
behind Giorgio at the intermediate
time – by 3/100 – but
he glided perfectly in the last
flat part to win finally by the
smallest margin of 1/100.
Great emotion in the finish area
He
showed as usual great emotion in
the finish area where he was congratulated
by his staff and his father Ante,
then by Janica.
“This is the most amazing success,
it’s unbelievable” he
shouted.
“I could not walk this morning
and now I win this race, how can
this be possible” he repeated
several times.
“I own this victory to Janica
and my staff, they did a marvelous
job to help me earlier today”
he explained.
“Janica pushed me and encouraged
me a lot. She told me I could do
it because she did it also last
winter in Saalbach. I never though
to recover the red leader’s
bib here, especially after my injury”.
“It’s great to win again,
it gives me great momentum for the
next weeks. I hope to keep on improving
too in giant slalom in Alta Badia
where I skied very well last winter”.
Ivica also commented this new format
of slalom which he criticized at
the press conference.
“It’s difficult for me
to say negative things about this
form of racing, but I don’t
think it’s a good system because
you eliminate too many skiers for
the finals” he said. “Nine
skier racing in a single short run
for the first place makes no sense,
it’s not a good way to promote
skiing. Look at the football World
Championships where 32 teams are
no playing in the final round. There
were 16 then 24 in past years. You
need to involve as many nations
and skiers as possible for the last
run to interest a maximum of TV
stations and nations”.
Bode Miller, who skied again out
in the first run, has not scored
a point so far in slalom. Rainer
Schoenfelder, the winner from Park
City, also failed to finish the
first run.
The American may not change his
plan to compete in all events. In
Val Gardena, he will train a day
in downhill, then in GS, race the
Super-G and then decide if it makes
sense for him or not to compete
the downhill race before the important
GS in Alta Badia. He was on his
way to win it last year when he
crashed out when he attacked too
much in the second run.
A win before the Christmas break
would be crucial for him now.
