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| ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP 1997/98 |
Kranjska Gora (SLO) Men's 2nd Slalom. 04.Jan.1998
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1st / Tomas Sykora(AUT) |
4th / Kiminobu Kimura(JPN) |
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| Kranjska Gora Slalom Drow |
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First Season's Win for Sykora in Controversial Slalom
Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, January 4--Austria's
Thomas Sykora celebrated his first season's
win in slalom in a dramatic competition marked
by lots of surprises.
The defending slalom World Cup champion,
only 9th in the first run, beat by 16/100
of a second France's unknown Pierrick Bourgeat
and by 20/100 his teammate Thomas Stangassinger.
Japan's Kiminobu Kimura achieved his best
World Cup race in his career with a strong
4th place only 13/100 behind Stangassinger.
Norway's Finn Christian Jagge, leader in
the first run with a lead of 1/100 on Italy's
Alberto Tomba, lagged at 24th after losing
too much time in the second run. Tomba on
his side decided to pull out of the competition
after arguing with an FIS official while
inspecting the second run. The triple Olympic
champion disagreed with the race jury's decision
to have the top-30 skiers from the first
run start in the reverse order in the afternoon.
Tomba argued that the course conditions were
not acceptable for a world class event. Canada's
Thomas Grandi was 10th and Matthew Grosjean
18th.
The Austrian team, which has won 8 of the
first 12 competitions so far this winter,
didn't have a strong position after the first
run won by Jagge in front of Tomba, Andrej
Miklavc from Slovenia, Martin Hansson from
Sweden, Ole Kristian Furuseth and Tom Stiansen
also from Norway. Its best-placed representative,
Stangassinger, only managed to clock the
8th best time. He was followed by three of
his teammates including Sykora and Christian
Mayer, the winner in giant slalom the day
before.
But, both Thomas didn't accept this disappointing
result and fought back in the second run
in which they managed to take advantage of
better course conditions to improve their
overall team position. How much and how fast
the track deteriorated was soon obvious when
it was clear that the first skiers to start--the
last to have qualified in the morning-- were
able to set the fastest times.
France's Joel Chenal and Canada's Thomas
Grandi, 30th in the opening run, were in
fact the quickest down the challenging "Podkoren"
slope covered by soft snow with times of
48"45 and 48"47. Slovenia's Matjaz
Vrhovnik, who has never entered the top-10
in World Cup races. Moved up from 29th to
13th place, thanks his 3rd best time in 48"67.
Then the piste started to show wear from
the edges of the skis of the next competitors
who got much slower times despite aggressive
skiing. Pierrick Bourgeat, 9th here a year
ago and 19th in the first leg, took the lead
for a long time until the arrival of Sykora,
a winner in Kranjska Gora a year ago. With
a time of 50"01 Skyora was much slower
in that run than Chenal but fast enough to
keep the lead. Switzerland's Michael von
Grunigen could handle all the ruts and the
wholes on the bad course, and he had to be
finally content with the 25th place. His
delay--1.03 second--proves how close this
race was at the end with the 24 first skiers
classified in the same second.
When the leaders threw themselves out of
the start-house, the course was only a succession
of ruts and holes which they battled to survive
until the finish line. Hanson went from 4th
to 9th place, Miklav from 3rd to 5th and
Jagge, eventually also very tensed, from
first to 24th. Sykora couldn't believe his
luck after Jagge's arrival. He kneed on the
ground before being congratulated by his
teammates and his fans. "This is the
most unexpected of all my wins," said
the tall Austrian who has won seven races
in the past two winters. " In the second
run I gave my very best to move up in the
ranking as Tomba did last December in Sestriere,
where he finished 4th after being 20th in
the first run." "I have never fought
so hard, but I didn't believe at the beginning
that it would be good enough for a place
in the podium. A first season's win is very
important: it gives you great momentum for
the rest of the winter. My goal is to gain
my first ever medal at Nagano, but first
I need to qualify."
Responding to questions about the course,
Sykora added: "It was for sure a tough
race, and I was sorry to see that Tomba pulled
out after a dispute with the race director
Gunther Hujara. I saw how they argued after
Alberto checked the snow with one of his
skis. I can understand his decision, but
it's not so fair towards all the spectators
and the course workers."
It's not the first time that the 1995 Overall
World Cup champion has pulled out of a race
after tough discussion with some FIS representative.
Three years ago, he refused to start a second
time in a giant slalom held here after it
had been interrupted and rescheduled because
of fog. The 31 year-old-skier from Bologna
is not ready to make any more compromises
with FIS Officials regarding bad racing conditions.
"The course was already in bad shape
for me this morning despite my low start-number,"
Tomba told n Italian TV station. "I
didn't see a reason to take more risks in
the afternoon after I heard that the top-30
and not the top-15 will be reversed. I don't
need the points in slalom as I do in giant
slalom. I can't understand how we could race
here yesterday despite the bad weather and
not in Madonna di Campiglio where there was
much more snow. I still believe that the
world best skiers should race in the best
possible conditions to achieve a spectacular
show for their fans. It's not possible when
the course is already destroyed".
Tomba has been fighting hard in the past
years to increase the influence of the racers
in the important decisions made by the race
jury regarding safety and course conditions.
He has also tried to create a union of racers,
but his efforts have never been supported
by the other teams. It's not sure yet if
he will compete next Tuesday in Saalbach,
Austria, where the next event, a giant slalom,
will take place.
The next World Cup races will take place
on Monday and Tuesday in Italy's Bormio -
a women's giant slalom and a slalom. The
skiers to beat will again be Deborah Compagnoni,
who hasn't lost a GS race for a year, and
Sweden's Ylva Nowen, who has a winning streak
of three successes in a row this winter. |
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Men's 2nd Slalom, 04,01,1998
| Rank |
Name |
Nat. |
Total |
| 1 |
SYKORA Thomas |
AUT |
1:37.93 |
| 2 |
BOURGEAT Pierrick |
FRA |
1:38.09 |
| 3 |
STANGASSINGER Thomas |
AUT |
1:38.13 |
| 4 |
KIMURA Kiminobu |
JPN |
1:38.26 |
| 5 |
MIKLAVC Andrej |
SLO |
1:38.29 |
| 6 |
KJUS Lasse |
NOR |
1:38.34 |
| 7 |
KOSIR Jure |
SLO |
1:38.35 |
| 8 |
CHENAL Joel |
FRA |
1:38.42 |
| 9 |
HANSSON Martin |
SWE |
1:38.43 |
| 10 |
GRANDI Thomas |
CAN |
1:38.44 |
| 11 |
REITER Mario |
AUT |
1:38.45 |
| 12 |
AAMODT Kjetil Andre |
NOR |
1:38.52 |
| 13 |
VRHOVNIK Matjaz |
SLO |
1:38.53 |
| 14 |
FURUSETH Ole Christian |
NOR |
1:38.56 |
| 15 |
MAYER Christian |
AUT |
1:38.57 |
| 16 |
TRITSCHER Michael |
AUT |
1:38.58 |
| 16 |
SIMOND Francois |
FRA |
1:38.58 |
| 18 |
GROSJEAN Matthew |
USA |
1:38.59 |
| 19 |
MADER Guenther |
AUT |
1:38.62 |
| 20 |
NANA Matteo |
ITA |
1:38.76 |
| 21 |
VOGL Alois |
GER |
1:38.80 |
| 22 |
TESCARI Fabrizio |
ITA |
1:38.81 |
| 23 |
EBERLE Markus |
GER |
1:38.86 |
| 24 |
JAGGE Finn Chr. |
NOR |
1:38.90 |
| 25 |
VON GRUENIGEN Michael |
SUI |
1:38.96 |
| 26 |
STIANSEN Tom |
NOR |
1:38.97 |
| 27 |
HIRASAWA Gaku |
JPN |
1:39.19 |
| 28 |
VOGLREITER Siegfried |
AUT |
1:39.34 |
Did not start 1st run:
MAN DE Harald II (NED), KUNC Mitja (SLO)
Did not start 2nd run:
TOMBA Alberto (ITA)
Did not finish 1st run:
POPOV Lubomir (BUL), MARILA Mika (FIN), GRAVIER Richard (FRA), BAXTER Alain
(GBR), MOSKOWITZ Aaron (ISR), GRIGOLETTO Gianluca (ITA), BERGAMELLI Thomas
(ITA), MINAGAWA Kentaro (JPN), LOEDLER Thomas (CRO), KOLLE Arnt Georg (NOR),
BURAAS Hans-Petter (NOR), PLASCHY Didier (SUI)
Disqualified 1st run:
AMIEZ Sebastien (FRA), LLORACH Gaetan (FRA), BERGAMELLI Sergio (ITA), SAETER
Aane (NOR)
Disqualified 2nd run:
BJORNSSON Kristinn (ISL)
Did not qualify 2nd run:
ESCODA Gerard (AND), ALBRECHT Kilian (AUT), SCHILCHEGGER Heinz (AUT), TICHY
Martin (CAN), MAXA Marcel (CZE), HAYER Stanley (CAN), PALANDER Kalle (FIN),
DIMIER Yves (FRA), ROLLAND Eric (FRA), VIOLON Pierre (FRA), VIDAL Jean-Pierre
(FRA), ERTL Andreas (GER), SPEISER Gerhard (GER), ROCCA Giorgio (ITA), VICQUERY
Simone (ITA), WEISS Angelo (ITA), ISHIOKA Takuya (JPN), EXARTIER Stephane (POL),
BACHLEDA Andrzej (POL), ANDERSSON Anders (SWE), BRUGGE Jesper (SWE), ACCOLA Paul
(SUI), WYSSEN Koebi (SUI), CASANOVA Marco (SUI), GROS Sacha (USA), KNIGHT Chip
(USA), MILLER Bode (USA), MLEKUZ Rene (SLO), GRUBELNIK Drago (SLO), HUTKA Andrej
(SVK)
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