ALPINE:

Janka wins overall, Ligety nabs GS crystal

March 12, 2010 — The Canadian Press          ►Photos: Ted Ligety (Agence Zoom); bottom, Carlo Janka (AZ)

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GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — Carlo Janka became the first Swiss man to win the overall World Cup title since 1992 and completed a rare triple Friday, and American Ted Ligety secured the giant slalom crystal globe.

Janka, the Olympic champion, won the final giant slalom of the season to take an unassailable lead in overall standings with one race remaining. He is now 106 points ahead of Benjamin Raich of Austria, who will finish second for the fourth straight year after winning the title in 2006.

"I am really proud to have won it at age 23," Janka said. "To be world champion, Olympic champion and overall champion at that age is incredible.

"It was totally unexpected for me," Janka said. "Benni (Raich) is one of the fairest athletes and he would have deserved the title as well, he led the standings for a long time."

The last Swiss man to win the overall title was Paul Accola in 1992.

"Everything came together this season and today everything was perfect. I had a good feeling after the first run and I was confident before the second," said Janka, who became world giant slalom champion last year. "I heard the announcer before the start and I knew I had to win the race to secure the title but that didn't bother me. I was focused."

With his main rivals out of contention, Ligety completed the second run to share third place and clinch the title he also won in 2008.

Ligety led the disciple standings ahead of the race and his closest rivals, Massimiliano Blardone of Italy and Marcel Hirscher of Austria, flopped in the first run. Blardone went off course and finished well behind, while Hirscher was disqualified for starting too early.

"I made some mistakes but so did many other guys," Ligety said. "This is a new hill, totally new course."

Janka led after the first run and was able to produce a clean second run under pressure to win in a combined time of 2 minutes, 20.87 seconds for his sixth victory of the season and eighth of the season.

Raich finished eighth and with 100 points at stake in Saturday's slalom, the final race of the season, cannot overtake Janka.

Davide Simoncelli of Italy was second in 2:21.18 and Ligety tied for third with Philipp Schoerghofer of Austria at 2:21.44.

Ligety was on course for the giant slalom title with his third-place finish in the first heat and raced a risk-free, uneventful second leg to secure the title.

"The course is a little bit flat," the American said. "I prefer a more difficult course."

One of the forerunners was Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht, whose crash 14 months ago left him in a coma.

The 26-year-old Albrecht sustained brain and lung injuries after crashing on the final jump in downhill training in Kitzbühel, Austria, last season. Doctors kept him in an induced coma for three weeks to allow brain swelling to ease.

Albrecht, who was 2007 world champion in super-combined, postponed earlier comebacks because Swiss coaches said he was not ready to return. After Friday's test, Albrecht said a full comeback would have to wait.

CBC's GMC Alpine Ski Series has a jam-packed day of ski racing on Saturday starting with the men's slalom at 2 p.m. ET. That is followed by the women’s super-G at 3 p.m. ET and the men's super-G won by Erik Guay at 4 p.m. ET.

Radio-Canada is scheduled to have two hours of coverage on its main network Saturday beginning at 3 p.m. ET and is expected to have coverage of the men's super-G in its programming.

Rogers Sportsnet has the men's GS at 7 p.m. in the Eastern, Western and Pacific viewing regions, as well as 4 p.m. in Ontario. On Saturday, the women’s slalom will be on at 2 p.m. (Eastern), 3 p.m. (Western and Ontario) 6 p.m. (Pacific).  SRC

— Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Garmisch-Partenkirchen men’s World Cup GS results