ALPINE:

Kostelic rockets to Kitzbühel super-G win, Guay 11th

Jan. 21, 2011     ♦ Photo: Ivica Kostelic (fischerskis.com)

KITZBÜHEL, Austria — Overall leader Ivica Kostelic won a super-G race Friday for his fifth World Cup victory of the year and 16th of his career.

The Croatian slalom specialist, who had never won a speed race, finished his run on the challenging Streifalm course in 1 minute, 17.33 seconds to beat Georg Streitberger of Austria by 0.23 seconds. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway was another 0.05 back in third.

Canada's Erik Guay was 11th, Manny Osborne-Paradise 29th, Ben Thomsen 34th and Dustin Cook 36th.

"It was not a clean run, I went off the ideal line a couple of times, but I handled it pretty well," said Kostelic, who is enjoying the stretch of competition of his career.

His previous best result in a speed discipline was second in a super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in March 2010.

"It was important to have someone with a yellow helmet on the podium again," said Kostelic, whose helmet has the same color as the one retired ski legend Hermann Maier used to wear. They are both sponsored by the same Austrian bank.

Last year's winner, Didier Cuche of Switzerland, was fourth, while teammate and defending overall champion Carlo Janka was 2.04 behind after skiing off course and almost missing a gate.

Kostelic, who had bib No. 3, said he took advantage of his low start number.

"Visibility did not get better during the race so it was good to have an early start," said the Croatian, who leads the overall standings with 826 points. Svindal is second with 255.

"I will start thinking about the overall title after the World Championships," Kostelic said. "I will have to focus on every single race up to then."

The Austrian team escaped more trouble this week when three racers just managed to avoid high-speed crashes, one day after teammate Hans Grugger fell during downhill training. He underwent brain surgery and has been put in an induced coma.

Klaus Kroell, Michael Walchhofer and Benjamin Raich all went missed a gate over the same section of the hill, where a bumpy right curve threw them off course.

"We're still deeply shocked. It was not easy to race," former overall champion Raich said. "Our thoughts are with Hans, we hope he gets well soon and can race with us again some day."

Canada's Guay made a strong return to the World Cup, finishing .01 of a second outside the top 10. The 29-year-old, of Mont-Tremblant, Que., who hadn't competed since December due to a troublesome back, tied for 11th with Italy's Christof Innerhofer.

"It's not a bad return, I would say," said Guay, who won the crystal globe last season as the overall World Cup super-G champion.

"Certain sections were better than others and I had a hard time finding my rhythm. But I got some points and that's all that counts."

Guay admits he held back just a little at the start of his run on the notoriously demanding course.

"I was pretty tentative at the top but I can chalk that up to the situation I am in," said Guay, who added his back was "a little bit tight" after the race but he still plans to start Saturday's downhill. "Realistically I'm just looking to get back into the blocks.

"My back is getting better every day. This is really a rebuilding process for Garmisch," Guay said of next month's World Championships in Germany.

Osborne-Paradis finished 29th after losing time at the top of his run. On a day in which 23 skiers failed to complete the demanding course, young Canucks Thomsen and Cook  finished 34th and 36th. Calgary's Jan Hudec tweaked his back in the warm-up and sat out the race.

"There were some really positive things that happened today," said Paul Kristofic, Canada's head coach. "There were a couple of tricky sections and (Thomsen and Cook) managed them OK. I think there was an opportunity to secure World Cup points today but Ben skied some parts exceptionally well and Dustin did well for his first time here."

Osborne-Paradis didn't get the result he was hoping for but gets another chance in Saturday's downhill.

"He had some major troubles on the top but and he definitely wanted to go faster," said Kristofic of the veteran. "He was fighting."  S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Kitzbühel men's World Cup super-G results