World Champ. Super Combined Results-Men (2/8/7)

[Ski]

From Eurosports.com

 

 

Switzerland's Daniel Albrecht made his first victory a world gold medal when he surprised the favourites to win the men's super-combined event at the Are championships on Thursday.

 

Albrecht, who was in seventh position after the downhill section, mastered a tricky slalom course on which many competitors skied out to win in a combined time of two minutes 28.99 seconds.

 

The 23-year-old had never made the podium at a major event nor on the World Cup circuit but had demonstrated his potential by finishing fourth in the combined event at last year's Olympics.

 

"I had a good downhill and after that I concentrated on reaching the bottom of the slalom," he said. "I would have been more than satisfied with a podium but a gold medal is just unbelievable.

 

"The conditions suited me fine with that very cold snow requiring aggressive skiing," he added after a slalom staged under floodlights at the end of another dry, blistering cold day in this Swedish resort with temperatures below minus 20 Celsius.

 

"I also have new slalom skis which are absolutely fine on a course like this one."

 

Albrecht's victory was the second shock result in as many men's races in the two-week festival after Italian Patrick Staudacher's stunning super-G gold on Tuesday.

 

Austria's Benjamin Raich, the defending combined champion, won silver, a slim 0.08 seconds back, with Switzerland's Marc Berthod completing the podium, 0.24 seconds off the pace.

 

"Silver is okay," said Raich, who was in 14th position after the downhill and clocked the best time in the slalom.

 

"I had lost too much time in the downhill to have a reasonable chance of winning the gold," he added.

 

Berthod, who contributed to a memorable day for Switzerland, had already made the skiing world take notice last month when he celebrated one of the most unlikely maiden World Cup victories in history, coming from 27th place at the halfway stage to win a slalom on home snow in Adelboden.

 

American Bode Miller, who had clocked the fastest time in Thursday's downhill leg, finished sixth after an error-ridden slalom.

 

The unpredictable Miller, who had appeared at his ragged worst when he was 24th in the super-G, strongly suggested on Thursday he would be one to watch in Saturday's blue-riband downhill.

 

Miller's compatriot Ted Ligety, the Olympic combined champion, survived a scare when he had to stop to avoid colliding with a race steward in the slalom. Ligety was already out of the medal hunt after a poor downhill run.

 

The super-combined, replacing the traditional combined which featured two slalom legs after the downhill run, was making its debut at major championships here.