Ski Racing World Cup Results Slalom 2011-12

With two slalom races to go, Andre Myhrer hadn't won a race this season, but the Swedish skier took victory in the final 2 races to overhaul both Ivica Kostelic and Marcel Hirscher in a dramatic conclusion at Schladming. Kostelic went into the final race in command at the top of the leaderboard, and he was first out of the starting gate wearing bib number 1. However, his plans to retain his slalom title were soon in tatters as he missed a gate and found himself desperately side-stepping up the slope to try to salvage something. He was still in the race, but about 20 seconds behind the time he'd have hoped for ! Two racers later down came Austrian Hirscher, in front of the same partisan crowd that he'd won the famous night slalom on, back in January. Things went even worse for him as he also missed a gate and skied out completely ! That left the door wide open for Swedish racer Andre Myrher, who despite not having the same dramatic results as Kostelic and Hirscher, had been a model of consistency, and had come good in the previous slalom at Kranjska Gora. Myrher held his nerve to ski the race of his life, skiing the 2nd fastest run in the first leg, and then the fastest in the 2nd leg, to see of the challenge of Felix Neureuther from Germany to claim the title. A dramatic end to a thrilling slalom season.

Ivica Kostelic made it two wins out of three over the weekend at Wengen as he followed up victory in Friday's combined race with another first place in the slalom, the Croatian destroying the field, beating Swedish skier Andre Myhrer and German skier Fritz Dopfer by 0.85 and 0.88 seconds respectively into 2nd and 3rd places. The first run had seen Austrian Mario Matt lead the field, just two hundredths of a second faster than Italian Cristian Deville with Kostelic just one hundredths of a second further behind. Slalom championship leader Marcel Hirscher had actually recorded the fastest time on the first run, the race clock timing him 0.77 seconds faster than Matt, but apparently he'd missed a gate near the start and was subsequently disqualified before the second run. It meant that the young Austrian missed out on making it a hat-trick of victories and opened the door for his nearest rival, Kostelic, to close the championship gap. And the Croatian grasped the opportunity with both ...err, skis ! Myhrer, Dopfer and Kostelic really attacked the 2nd run, but it was Kostelic and his amazing final surging-charge that took him comfortably into 1st place, and saw him claim his third slalom win in a row at Wengen, a feat that has only ever been matched by the legendary Ingemar Stenmark. Matt and Deville couldn't match their first runs and had to settle with 4th and 6th places, with another German, Felix Neureuther, sandwiched between in 5th following a fine 2nd run. The win extended Kostelic's lead at the top of the slalom championship to 125 points ahead of Hirscher, with Myhrer a further 65 points back in 3rd.

Ivica Kostelic went back to the top of the slalom standings with two faultless runs at a snowy Flachau course in Austria. It was not such a good night for local favourite Marcel Hirscher though, as he struggled on the first run and then straddled a gate on the second run. Kostelic had lead after the first run with a time of 55.11 seconds, with in-form Italian Cristian Deville and Austrian Manfred Pranger just behind him. A great second leg from Swede Andre Myhrer saw him top the standings, and neither Pranger or Deville could top it, but Kostelic held his nerve and took the top place, his combined time just 0.07 seconds faster than the Swede. German skier Felix 'the Cat' Neureuther also had a fine 2nd run and pushed Pranger back into 5th place.

Austrian youngster Marcel Hirscher capped a great weekend at Alta Badia by winning the slalom event, having already finished 5th in the giant slalom. The 22 year old lead after the first run and held his nerve with a fine 2nd run to see off home skier Giuliano Razzoli by just over half a second. German slalom specialist Felix Neureuther completed the podium positions with two great runs to continue his decent start to the season whilst Andre Myhrer from Sweden and Ivica Kostelic, the winner of the opening slalom in Beaver Creek, completed the top 5. The result catapulted Hirscher into the lead in the Slalom standings, pushing Kostelic down into 2nd place, whilst Myhrer and Neurether moved up to 4th and 5th places and Italian skier Cristian Deville dropped down to third in the standings having finished in 6th place. Another Italian skier, Patrick Thaler was off the pace in the first run but produced a storming time of 53.05 to eventually finish in 7th place, moving him into the same position in the standings, just behind Razzoli.