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Italy's
Giorgio Rocca won his first-ever World Cup on Sunday, finishing
ahead of Japan's Akira Sasaki and Croatian champion Ivica Kostelic.
Rocca sped down the hard Mannlichen-Jungfrau course in a two-run
combined time of 1 minute, 47.88 seconds.
"This is a great day for me. Finally a win," said Rocca, who had
finished a maddening .01 behind reigning World Cup slalom champion
Ivica Kostelic in Sestrieres in December. The real triumph of the
day, however, was Sasaki's second-place finish in only his 13th
World Cup race. He finished just .04 behind Rocca, clocking 1:47.92.
"I could never have imagined this. It's like a dream," a jubilant
Sasaki said. The 21-year-old student had started the first leg back
in 65th position to finish an extraordinary seventh and qualify for
the second leg for the first time of his career. "At the start of
the season my goal was to win a World Cup race even though I had
never been on the podium before," said Sasaki, who finished 20th in
the slalom at the 1999 World Championships. "Now, with this second
place, maybe a win will be possible." Kostelic, the World Cup slalom
leader, was third with
1:48.59. "The second run was very difficult," Kostelic said. "I saw
all my toughest competitors go out. "I'm happy with third place
because I had a tough week. It was really hard." Kostelic spent the
week denying allegations that he sympathizes with Nazism after the
Croatian weekly National cited comments he made last Sunday
comparing his pre-race attitude to that of a German soldier
preparing for attack during World War II.
Norwegian all-arounder Kjetil Andre Aamodt finished seventh and won
the combined event, which adds the times from Friday's downhill to
the slalom. "I'm really happy to win the combined," Aamodt said.
"It's a special win because it's my first this year. American Bode
Miller took over the lead of the overall from Stephan Eberharter
after collecting 104 points Sunday with an 11th-place finish in the
slalom and a second place in the combined. Miller leads with 858
points, with Eberharter on 815. "I changed equipment after the
opening leg," said Miller, who'd had a rodeo-like opening run. "I
had some serious mistakes in the first leg. "I tried to go fast in
the second run but I wasn't so much looking for speed," he said. "I
was just trying to make it down and do well in the combined."
Kostelic still leads the slalom standings with 378 points. Austrian
Rainer Schoenfelder sat second on 234. |
