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ST.
MORITZ, Switzerland (AP) _ Ivica Kostelic of Croatia won the men's
slalom at the world championship Sunday, following in the footsteps
of his sister Janica, who won the women's race a day earlier.
They became the first brother and sister to win gold medals in the
same event at a world championship. Kostelic led after the first run
and protected his lead to capture his first major title. Silvan
Zurbriggen of Switzerland charged from behind to grab the silver
medal, and Giorgio Rocca of Italy took the bronze.
Bode Miller of the United States, who was seeking his third gold of
the championship, finished sixth. Kostelic covered the relatively
flat Corviglia course in a winning aggregate time of one minute,
40.66 seconds. Zurbriggen, who rallied from seventh place, finished
0.33 seconds behind. Rocca was 0.36 adrift. Kostelic's victory in
the final event of the championship completed a Croatian dominated
weekend and allowed him to emerge from the considerable shadow of
his younger sister. Janica, 21, won the slalom Saturday to add to
the gold she took in the combined event.
She also won three golds and a silver at last year's Olympics in
Salt Lake City, while the 23-year-old Ivica had never won a medal at
a major championship. "I had to take a lot of risks," Kostelic said
after his win Sunday. "I was on the edges a lot, I saw that
Zurbriggen had had a super run." "Before the race we had a chat and
I told him that he would win today. He said it would be difficult to
beat me. I told that if I win, he'd be second and that's what
happened," Kostelic said. Zurbriggen, who trailed Kostelic 0.72
seconds after the first heat, is a 21-year-old newcomer in his first
season on the circuit who had completed only four races before the
championship.
"It's incredible," he said. Kostelic had won three slalom races
before the championship and is leading the discipline in World Cup
standings.
Benjamin Raich of Austria, who was second after the first run, fell
to fourth. Fellow Austrian Manfred Pranger, third after the first
heat, slipped to fifth. Miller had a troubled first run, losing his
left ski pole midway down the course and leaving himself a
substantial 0.90 to make up in the second leg. His second heat was
also rocky but Miller still climbed two places to sixth. Winner of
the giant slalom and the combined and a silver medalist in the
super-G, Miller was seeking to become the first American to clinch
four medals at a world championship. |
