ALPINE:

Sizzling Kostelic secures Wengen super-combi win

Jan. 14, 2011

WENGEN, Switzerland ― Ivica Kostelic extended his career-best run of form Friday, winning a men's World Cup super-combined event for his third victory in 12 days to stretch his lead in the overall standings.

The 31-year-old Croatian dominated the afternoon slalom run after placing fifth in the downhill, for a combined two-leg time of 2 minutes, 40.44 seconds.

Carlo Janka of Switzerland was second, 0.58 seconds back. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway trailed Kostelic by 1.34 in third.

Ryan Semple of Canada had a strong day, placing 24th, while Dustin Cook finished 29th.

Kostelic's 14th World Cup win came after victories in a parallel slalom event at Munich and a slalom at Adelboden, Switzerland, this month.

"I'm just riding on this wave that I caught in Munich and going from race to race," said Kostelic, who excels on the Wengen slalom slope. "These last two weeks have been the most successful of my career."

With 100 race points for victory, Kostelic holds a 109-point advantage on Svindal in the standings.

Bode Miller, who edged Kostelic for the Olympic super-combined gold medal last February, placed sixth, 1.68 down. The American got his best result of the season in a traditional World Cup race, though he was third in the rapid-fire racing Munich event.

Ted Ligety of the United States used the second-fastest slalom run to place ninth, in snow conditions he described as "horrendous" after days of rain and warm weather.

"The course is just bottomless slush," said Ligety, who finished 23rd in the downhill. Ligety stayed fifth in the overall standings.

The wet, spring-like snow perfectly suited Kostelic, who prides himself on training into May when other racers are on offseason breaks.

"I ski quite well on the soft snow," he said, adding that being fifth after the downhill run was key to the victory.

Nearing the halfway mark, Kostelic is well-poised to claim his first overall World Cup title. His sister Janica is a three-time women's overall champion, in 2001, '03 and '06, but has retired from the sport.

Janka is the defending overall champion and equaled his best result this season.

"Ivica was too strong. I'm really happy with my day, in downhill and the slalom," said the 24-year-old Swiss, who will defend his title in the classic Lauberhorn downhill on Saturday.

Svindal, who seldom scores points in slalom, said his run was his best since winning gold in super-combined at the 2009 World Championships.

"I skied a surprisingly good slalom," said the tall Norwegian, who has never won at Wengen. "Third place feels very good."

First-run leader Christof Innerhofer of Italy dropped to fourth place after a painful slalom run. He sustained an elbow injury when crashing into a wooden fence during warm-ups.

More than 19,000 fans lined the course for the first of the three-race Lauberhorn weekend, which also includes a slalom on Sunday.

Kostelic, who has two career wins and four podium finishes in slaloms here, played down his chances of an upset win in the marquee downhill.

"My best downhill ranking here is about 20th," he said. "If I could jump 20 places, this is more like science fiction to me.”

S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press contributed to this report

Wengen men's World Cup super-combined results