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Kostelic, who
won the season-opening slalom last week in Park City, Utah, came
across in 1:39.06. Marlies Schild of Austria, 12th after the
first run and 1.21 seconds off the pace, had the quickest second
run of 50.69 and vaulted to third at 1:39.18. Nicole Hosp of
Austria was fourth, and France's Christel Pascal fifth. Laure
Pequegnot of France, the defending World Cup slalom champion,
was seventh after the first run but missed a gate early in her
second heat.No Americans qualified for the second run.Paerson,
the next-to-last racer on the course for the second run,
exuberantly pounded her ski poles on the snow after seeing her
time, but knew she still had to await the result of Kostelic _
the final skier. Upon seeing that Kostelic's time fell short,
Paerson ran toward the crowd and did a bellyflop in the finish
area."I'm trying to win the slalom cup this year," Paerson, 21,
said. "If I ski as I did today, it's possible." Kostelic, who at
Salt Lake City became the first Alpine skier to capture four
medals in a single Olympics,continued to build her lead in the
overall standings with 344 points. Paerson is second with 202.
Kostelic, runner-up to Germany's Hilde Gerg in Friday's super-G
here, had a first-run time of 47.28 seconds. With start No. 2,
she avoided the pitfalls of a course that became increasingly
rutted in the bottom section for later skiers. Paerson, starting
first, came across in 47.45. Natasa Bokal of Slovenia, who
started 23rd, was .03 seconds faster than Kostelic halfway down
the course, butshe finished nearly two seconds behind at 49.10.
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