Jure Kosir (SLO)

Kosir Wins Last Day in Kitzbühel
Slovenian Jure Kosir won today's prestigious slalom three weeks after achieving a kid dream in Kranjska Gora where he triumphed in front of his home crowd.

This is Kosir's third World Cup win, claimed after a tough fight against outsiders. He beat Switzerland's little known Didier Plaschy, who reached his first podium, by 4/100 of a second and Italy's Giorgio Rocca confirmed his talent by taking 3rd at 7/100.

"I didn't worry about my form after skiing out last week at Wengen—it happens when you take risks. Now I will be very relaxed at Vail..." — Jure Kosir (SLO)

Kosir, who finished 2nd and 3rd here in '95 and '96, was moved by his win. "To win on this difficult course in front of such a crowd in fantastic," he said. "I had a smooth first run, but I had to fight very hard in the second one. I had to take all risks since I had a important delay on Bourgeat. I'm having a great season so far. I didn't worry about my form after skiing out last week at Wengen—it happens when you take risks. Now I will be very relaxed at Vail. My season was already excellent."

Over 30,000 spectators attended that race with hopes to see their hero, Benjamin Raich, win again. He was not successful this time, but the competition was spectacular and dramatic.

The World Cup slalom leader, Thomas Stangassinger, finished a strong 4th, maintaining the lead in slalom standings before the World Championships. France's Pierrick Bourgeat lead the first run but ultimately finished 8th at 46/100 behind the leader.

Four favorites didn't finish the first run: Austria's Hermann Maier; Norway's Hans Petter Burras, 2nd here in 1998, Austria's Christian Mayer and his teammate Benjamin Raich, the winner in the last two slaloms in Schladming and Wengen.

Other favorites including Norwegians Ole-Christian Furuseth; Tom Stiansen, the 1997 World Champion in slalom and Finn-Christian Jagge, winner in Kitzbuhel, finished outside of the top-10. But their teammate Kjetil Aamodt placed an important 9th place, which helped him to clinch the Hahnenkamm combined for the second consecutive time. His friend and teammate, Lasse Kjus, placed 5th in the first run but finished a disappointing 24th after a cautious second run. However, Kjus managed to take the lead in the overall World Cup standings in front of Aamodt and Maier. The second half of the season will be very interesting.

Aamodt was happy with with winning the weekend's combined, his first win this season. "I felt really sore today after all the efforts made in the past days on the downhill course," he said. "I didn't feel my feet anymore and I was very nervous because of the combined. I know I can ski better slalom than this. At least I was better than last week at Wengen. Now I aim for good results at the Ski World Championships."

Lasse Kjus was not too disappointed to have lost the combined after his great first slalom run. "I did my best but it was not easy," he said. "You try to forget the pressure and the points of the combined, but it's very difficult. It's exciting to fight again for the overall title this season after my past disappointing winters. It's good that there is such a competition between us, it makes every thing more interesting and in a way also easier. You are more motivated when you have to fight for such a big goal. This week end was fine but now I need a good break."

Kjus, an avid golf player, plans to flight to Arizona to relax there with some friends in playing golf before heading to Vail.

The next men's World Cup races will take place in four weeks in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

— Mountain Zone European Correspondent