ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP 1997/98
Schladming (AUT) Men's 4th Slalom. 08.Jan.1998
MSL/Podio
Night Slalom Podium. 2nd Sykora, 1st Tomba, 3rd Buraas		 1st/Tomba
1st / Albert Tomba(ITA) 49th win
2nd/Sykora 3rd/Braas
2nd / Tomas Sykora(AUT) 3rd / Hans-Petter Buraas(NOR)
First season's win for "La Bomba"

The incredible Alberto Tomba has celebrated another of his emotional victories at Schladming Austria, in the fourth slalom of the season raced Thursday night under the limelight.
The triple Olympic champion, 2nd last Tuesday in a giant slalom in Saalbach already left this resort as a winner a year ago before clinching the bronze medal at the Ski World Championships at Sestriere, Italy. It was for sure on of the most prestigious wins in the last years since the 31-year-old Superstar beat by almost a second the best slalom specialist of the last years, Austria's Thomas Sykora, the defending slalom World Cup champion.
The young Norwegian Hans-Peter Buraas, 3rd at Sestriere in December, was 3rd again at 1,17 second from "La Bomba". Another Italian, Fabrizio Tescari, who clocked the second best time in the first leg, was a happy 4th in front of the young French Joel Chenal.
In the slalom World Cup standings after this race, Thomas Sykora is reinforcing his lead in front of Norway's Finn Christian Jagge and his teammate Thomas Stangassinger who finished far behind him.
This race, followed by more than ten thousand spectators, was also marked by the accident of Switzerland's Michael von Grunigen who injuring himself at his left shoulder after crashing out of the course at the middle of the first run. The reigning giant slalom World Champion had to be carried away by sled. He may not be able to compete in the next GS race planned on Tuesday at Adelboden, in Switzerland.
America's Matthew Grosjean skied out in the first run after a strong start in the upper part.
Alberto had to fight hard to win his 34th World Cup slalom after a very slow season start. 17th in giant slalom in Tignes, he couldn't finish the races in Park City because of strong pain at his back. At Val d'Isere, he moved up to 8th place in another giant slalom and at Sestriere he was 4th in slalom after clocking the best time in the second run.
He crashed in Alta Badia but was 5th in Kranjska Gora in giant@slalom before his dispute with a FIS Official in the slalom@after clocking the second best time in the first leg. As so often in the past, he has charged himself with great aggressiveness and much momentum in these controversies . At Schladming Alberto was ready to take all risks to conquer his first win on the steep slalom course surrounded by a huge crowd which gave him a standing ovation when he was rushing down the hill in the late evening. "I felt very confident today after the races in Kranjska Gora and Saalbach" he said afterwards.
"I also knew that everybody was excepting me to win again this race and I felt the expectation of my fans. In the first run, the conditions were excellent and I could ski at my best on the hard snow. The course was much rougher during the second run but I didn't care too much. I just gave my best to retain the lead . It's a great win which pays me back of the hard work done since last spring. Now I'm ready for the Olympics - and my rivals know it too now". Great emotion too for his younger sister Alessia who assists him as a press agent since the season start.
"This success means a lot for all of us, it's really nice to start so well the new year" she said. "There is a great pressure on Alberto and he trained hard for his last Olympics. He has reached an important goal today but he also wishes to improve his giant slalom". Thomas Sykora was also impressed by Alberto's achievement. The tall Austrian was 6th in the first run at 87/100 of the Italian and he lost again few hundredths in the second run despite taking all risks on the damaged course.
"It's too bad that Alberto decided to start in the second run this time " he said afterwards. "I don't know why I'm so slow in the first runs".
"But I'm still pleased because I'm pretty consistent this season also. I would have been happy to win in front of such a great crowd :I have never seen so many people at a slalom. I will try to fight back at Kitzbuhel but I think that Tomba will keep on improving in the coming weeks. For sure at the Olympics he will once more be the man to beat. He is really fantastic". The next men's event will also take place in Schladming this week end :two Super-g races are planned on Saturday and Sunday on the demanding "Planai" course which hosted its first World Cup race 25 years ago.
Hermann Maier, the other hero of the present World Cup winter will try to remain invincible also in that fast specialty after having won his fourth race at Saalbach.
Rank Name Nat. Total
 1 TOMBA Alberto  ITA   1:34.12
 2 SYKORA Thomas  AUT   1:35.01
 3 BURAAS Hans-Petter  NOR   1:35.29
 4 TESCARI Fabrizio  ITA   1:35.36
 5 CHENAL Joel  FRA   1:35.49
 6 MIKLAVC Andrej  SLO   1:35.50
 7 FURUSETH Ole Christian  NOR   1:35.51
 8 KOSIR Jure  SLO   1:35.55
 9 KIMURA Kiminobu  JPN   1:35.76
 10 VOGLREITER Siegfried  AUT   1:35.92
 11 VOGL Alois  GER   1:35.96
 12 MAYER Christian  AUT   1:36.01
 12 JAGGE Finn Chr.  NOR   1:36.01
 14 REITER Mario  AUT   1:36.03
 15 GRAVIER Richard  FRA   1:36.13
 16 KJUS Lasse  NOR   1:36.14
 17 AAMODT Kjetil Andre  NOR   1:36.27
 18 BOURGEAT Pierrick  FRA   1:36.33
 19 STIANSEN Tom  NOR   1:36.46
 20 SIMOND Francois  FRA   1:36.60
 21 STANGASSINGER Thomas  AUT   1:36.66
 22 SCHILCHEGGER Heinz  AUT   1:36.78
 23 EBERLE Markus  GER   1:36.91
 24 AMIEZ Sebastien  FRA   1:36.94
 25 GRUBELNIK Drago  SLO   1:37.15
 26 ISHIOKA Takuya  JPN   1:37.24
 27 KERNEN Bruno Ii  SUI   1:37.67

Did not finish 1st run:
ESCODA Gerard (AND), POPOV Lubomir (BUL), HAYER Stanley (CAN), DIMIER Yves (FRA), PAGE Kevin (FRA), ROLLAND Eric (FRA), VIOLON Pierre (FRA), ERTL Andreas (GER), BERGAMELLI Sergio (ITA), CASTELLANO Christian (ITA), DOBROWLSKI Wojciech (POL), HANSSON Martin (SWE), BRUGGE Jesper (SWE), VON GRUENIGEN Michael (SUI), PLASCHY Didier (SUI), GROSJEAN Matthew (USA), KNIGHT Chip (USA), VAITKUS Linas (LTU)

Did not finish 2nd run:
ALBRECHT Kilian (AUT), TRITSCHER Michael (AUT)

Disqualified 1st run:
BJORNSSON Kristinn (ISL)

Disqualified 2nd run:
LLORACH Gaetan (FRA)

Did not qualify 2nd run:
MADER Guenther (AUT), GRANDI Thomas (CAN), MARILA Mika (FIN), PALANDER Kalle (FIN), SPEISER Gerhard (GER), NANA Matteo (ITA), ROCCA Giorgio (ITA), VICQUERY Simone (ITA), WEISS Angelo (ITA), RIEDER Arnold (ITA), HIRASAWA Gaku (JPN), MINAGAWA Kentaro (JPN), KOLLE Arnt Georg (NOR), STRAND NILSEN Harald Chr. (NOR), BACHLEDA Andrzej (POL), ANDERSSON Anders (SWE), ACCOLA Paul (SUI), GROS Sacha (USA), MILLER Bode (USA), VRHOVNIK Matjaz (SLO), KUNC Mitja (SLO), PREVUZNAK Andrej (SVK)