ALPINE:

Fresh off heart surgery, Janka nabs GS win in Slovenia

March 5, 2011

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia — Olympic champion Carlo Janka of Switzerland won a men's World Cup giant slalom race on Saturday, 10 days after having surgery to correct an irregular heartbeat.

The defending overall champion was second after the opening leg and finished in a combined time of 2 minutes, 27.05 seconds for his first victory of the season.

"This is the perfect comeback for me," said Janka, who was diagnosed with a heart rhythm problem in December. The 24-year-old Swiss originally planned to have surgery after the season but then chose to have it done during a break from racing.

"My health is getting better and better," Janka said. "That's the most important for the future."

Janka won six races last year to become the first Swiss overall champion since Paul Accola in 1992, but has had a disappointing season so far. Five days before the operation, he lost his GS world title to Ted Ligety of the United States.

French teenager Alexis Pinturault had a blistering second run to jump from 16th to second, trailing Janka by 0.02. It was the first podium finish for Pinturault, who turns 20 later this month.

Ligety, who had won here for the past three seasons, was 0.12 back in third to boost his chances of retaining the World Cup discipline title.

The American has 383 points and — with just one more race — can only be overtaken by Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, who has 306, or France's Cyprien Richard, with 303.

Svindal took a disappointing 22nd after two runs in which he never looked comfortable. Richard was 0.36 behind Ligety in fourth.

Philipp Schoerghofer of Austria, a bronze medallist at the World Championships last month, held a commanding lead after the first leg but caught a bump and skied out early in his final run.

Ligety's teammate, Bode Miller, skipped the event and planned to return next week to World Cup skiing for speed races in Kvitfjell, Norway, the U.S. ski team said.

Overall World Cup leader Ivica Kostelic hurt his left arm when he hooked a gate at the bottom of the course in his first run and seemed to hold back in his second to take 18th place.

The Croatian further extended his lead over main rival Didier Cuche to 1,307 to 725. The Swiss skier sat out the event after undergoing surgery on a broken thumb following the world championships. Svindal is third with 722 points.

A slalom at the 50th Pokal Vitranc event in Kranjska Gora is scheduled for Sunday.'s World Cup giant slalom results

— The Canadian Press contributed to this report

Kranjska Gora men's World Cup giant slalom results