ALPINE:

Razzoli wins, Janyk 5th, Kostelic nabs slalom crystal

March 19, 2011 

LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland — World Cup overall champion Ivica Kostelic added the men's slalom title on Saturday, and Italy's Guiliano Razzoli won the final race in thick fog. Canada’s Michael Janyk finished fifth.

Kostelic placed 18th and out of the points but his closest rivals failed to take advantage.

Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Grange skied out in the first run, and Sweden's Andre Myhrer needed to win the race but held his first-leg position of sixth in rapidly worsening visibility.

As usual, Kostelic was cheered on loudly by hundreds of Croatian supporters in the finish-area grandstands, many waving flags and wearing national team football jerseys.

However, the thick fog meant spectators could hardly see the racers cross the finish line, or even the television pictures on a giant screen.

Kostelic's second slalom title comes nine years after the first in his injury-plagued career.

Given a spell of good health this season, Kostelic delivered a stunning streak of results including seven victories in January, three in slalom events.

Kostelic was also the runaway winner in the overall standings, and won the super-combined title.

Razzoli's two-run time of 1 minute, 25.72 seconds sealed his first victory since his gold medal performance in slalom at the Vancouver Olympics 13 months ago.

Razzoli finished 0.03 seconds ahead of first-run leader Mario Matt of Austria who was seeking his third straight win.

Germany's Felix Neureuther trailed by 0.25 in third.

The men's slalom had been delayed because of the weather conditions and took the starting time slots previously allocated to the women's giant slalom.

Canada's Janyk put it all on the line in the final slalom race of the World Cup season, laying down the fastest second run of the day and securing his fourth top-five finish of the year.

The 28-year-old from Whistler, B.C., was 17th after the first run but an incredible second run of 43.53 seconds pushed him up to fifth overall.

"I'm happy to come away with a fifth. Another close one," said Janyk, who finished with a combined time of 1:26.19 on a day when visibility was very poor due to thick fog. "The conditions were not optimal. I went out with a plan in the first run and got bounced around a lot but I really adapted and made the necessary changes in the second run."

Janyk has been agonizingly close to a podium several times this season, with fifth-place finishes in Bansko, Bulgaria, and Adelboden, Switzerland, in addition to a fourth-place result in Wengen, Switzerland.

"It's all in my head. It's all mental. I ski well enough in training to win," said Janyk. "I've done a lot of work in the last year. I was either fast or skiing out this season. I look at it as a positive. It's changing, I’m adapting. Next season I'll really be going after the wins."

Janyk was lying third with just two skiers to go, but found himself pushed back to fifth.

"I'm really happy with his second run," said Paul Kristofic, head coach of Canada's men's team. "I would love to see him step onto the podium but you need two good runs for that. He was just a little bit too far back. It's been a little bit that way this season."

Julien Cousineau of Lachute, Que., didn't finish his first run.

"He got hung up on one gate — got stuck on his inside ski," said Kristofic. "He had a pretty competitive split there but unfortunately it happened pretty early in the run."

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Lenzerheide men's World Cup slalom results