Men’s slalom Sestriere

Sestriere, March 14th - Austria's Rainer Schoenfelder won the men's slalom World Cup title Sunday despite finishing second to his rival Kalle Palander of Finland in the final race of the season.

The defending slalom World Cup champion beat his toughest rival by only 5/100 of a second while Manfred Pranger, who was once more leading after the first run, had to settle with 3rd place.
Italy’s Edoardo Zanardi starting from 20th place, was a surprising 4th ahead of Japan’s Akira Sasaki and the 2001 World Champ’ Mario Matt. Zanardi was 2nd in a slalom in Wengen two years ago after starting with a higher start-number.

Bode Miller was 7th - not good enough to capture a place on the overall World Cup podium. Benjamin Raich was 10th and beat him by five points at the end. Raich also grabbed the 3rd place in the slalom standings ahead of Italy’s Giorgio Roccas, only 12th.

Schoenfelder, also a popular singer in his country, went into the race with a 55-point advantage over Palander and his podium finish was enough to secure top spot in the slalom standings. He kept an advance of 35 points after the race.
He is the first Austrian to clinch the slalom Cup since Raich in 2001.

The battle between Schoenfelder and Palander has been soured by a dispute over the Austrian's second place in Park City, Utah, on Nov. 23 when he was allowed to race his first run again. Schoenfelder was initially disqualified after the second run, but later had his 80 points reinstated, prompting protests from Palander's team.

Kalle was upset

The Finns have taken their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after the International Ski Federation (FIS) rejected two appeals from several other Nations.

In the end, as the Finns feared, the disputed points proved decisive and the disappointment was hardly eased by Palander's victory Sunday.
"I have not felt so sad in my life after winning a race," he said. "It is always nice to win but this victory was useless. I have won four slaloms this year but I lose the title which is incredible. Schoenfelder won once and then you know what happened in Park City," added the Finn who won the slalom gold medal at the 1999 World Championships in Vail, Colorado.
"I don't know how he feels inside. I am still hoping we will hear some good news from our appeal," he said. “It’s just too bad because I have enjoyed a great season with six wins, more than any other skier this winter. I could have easily won two or three more races and then I would have been on the overall podium too.”

On Saturday, Palander lost all his chances for the GS title when the race had to be called off because bad weather. He was 2nd in the first run, and still in the run for the title as Miller crashed out of the first leg.
“It has been a tough weekend for me,” Kalle commented. “The race jury said it’s too risky to move the second GS run to today because the weather forecast was bad. It was supposed to be very foggy today – in fact it’s sunny and warm.”

Rainer was consistent

Schoenfelder has consistently been inside the top five throughout the season when he ended his slaloms. He only skied out once – but Palaner failed to finish three slalom races. The part-time pop singer celebrated his victory by falling to his knees in the finish area.
"It feels like winning a gold disc," said the Austrian, "I knew that Palander would win today because he is a great fighter and a top-skier. I just concentrated on doing my job to protect my lead. It was a beautiful race today and I was relaxed. People will take me seriously now. This was a great victory."

Austrian Hermann Maier won the overall men's World Cup title Saturday and did not compete in Sunday's race. The next World Cup race will take place in seven months – at the Opening in Soelden.

Eric Moffitt