ALPINE:

Grange sizzles at Schladming, Janyk 14th

Jan. 25, 2011

SCHLADMING, Austria — Jean-Baptiste Grange of France won a men's World Cup night slalom on Tuesday, his second victory in three days.

Grange, who also took Sunday's slalom in Kitzbühel, secured his ninth career win with an aggregate time of 1 minute, 46.54 seconds to edge Andre Myhrer by 0.04. The Swede had posted the fastest time in the opening run.

Myhrer's teammate Mattias Hargin was 0.60 back in third. 

Canada’s Michael Janyk was 14th, Trevor White 23rd and Paul Stutz 25th.

"This is one of the best wins of my career," Grange said. "I have always been impressed by the atmosphere and it was my dream to win here some day."

Grange injured his shoulder in a crash last month but returned to the circuit sooner than expected and wrapped up an impressive double victory.

Myhrer started the final run with a 0.85 advantage, but was already behind the Frenchman at the second intermediate time.

"Small details decide about winning or losing in slalom," Grange said. "Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not, but it all went well for me twice in a row."

Ivica Kostelic took fifth to further extend his lead in the overall standings. The Croatian has 1,075 points, followed by Switzerland's Silvan Zurbriggen with 643 and Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal with 585.

Kostelic also tops the slalom standings with 478. Grange is now second with 382, Myhrer third with 333.

Grange ended a four-year winning streak of the Austrian team on the Planai course. The Frenchman became only the fourth non-native skier to win in the 15-year history of the night race.

Every year, the event draws crowds of up to 50,000, lining up both sides of the course.

It was the first time since 2002 that an Austrian failed to make the podium, with former overall champion Benjamin Raich placing ninth for his team's best result.

World Cup slalom champion Reinfried Herbst, who won the race in 2009 and '10, was 1.12 behind after the opening run before skiing out in the second.

Janyk had been hoping to challenge for a spot on the podium after fifth- and fourth-place results in recent weeks, but wasn't happy with either of his runs Tuesday. He finished with a combined time of 1:48.89.

"Frustrated is the word," said Janyk, who was third at the 2009 FIS World Ski Championships in Val d'Isere, France. "I know I'm in good shape but right now it seems I can't figure out this snow. I'm unable to ski the way I want to."

Janyk said the team was lifted by Read becoming the second young Canadian to make his World Cup debut for the men's team this season after Sasha Zaitsoff of Nelson, B.C., made his first start at Adelboden, Switzerland, earlier this month.

"I think it's awesome that we've been able to have two guys start in the World Cup," said Janyk. "It's so instrumental to development in Canada. We haven't had this for a few years now and it's great to see."

Read's debut came at the same hill where his father won the downhill back in 1978.

"Right when I got into the finish corral one of my dad's good friends had him on the phone," said Erik, who will represent Canada at the Alpine Junior World Ski Championships, in Switzerland, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 6. "He congratulated me and said he hoped I enjoyed it."

Head coach Paul Kristofic was impressed with Read's poise under pressure.

"He was pretty composed. I thought he handled it really well," said Kristofic. "It's a huge race — 50,000 people. He didn't ski with nerves."

Kristofic said Canada's slalom skiers would take time to regroup and look ahead to the FIS World Ski Championships at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in February.

"As a group they are pretty disappointed," said Kristofic. "It's back to the drawing board, starting to focus on the World Championships."

Organizers interrupted the final run before the top four racers were to start as fireworks coming from the crowds caused poor visibility on the course. S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to his report

Schladming men's World Cup slalom results