US Bode Miller competes during the men's combined downhill at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Are. Miller took a first step towards the supercombined gold medal by winning the downhill portion of the event.(AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)
. world ski news : Are 2007: Super Combined Men - 08 February 2007 - 20:44
US Bode Miller competes during the men's combined downhill at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Are. Miller took a first step towards the supercombined gold medal by winning the downhill portion of the event.(AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)
Ondrej Bank of the Czech Republic slides over the finish line after crashing at the bottom of the course during the downhill portion of the Men's Combined, at the World Alpine Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
Austria's Michael Walchhofer crashes during the slalom part of the Men's Combined, at the World Alpine Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway speeds down the course during the downhill portion of the Men's Combined, at the World Alpine Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007. Lund Svindal set the secon fastest time. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Daniel Albrecht of Switzerland slaloms pst a pole on his way to winning the Men's Combined, at the World Alpine Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)
Austria's Benjamin Raich slaloms past a pole on his way to the second place, during the Men's Combined, at the World Alpine Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Bode Miller, of the United States, stands at the finish line after finishing sixth in the Men's Combined, at the World Alpine Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
From left: Austria's Benjamin Raich, silver, Daniel Albrecht of Switzerland, gold, and Switzerland's Marc Berthod, bronze, during the flower ceremny of the Men's Combined, at the World Alpine Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
From left: Austria's Benjamin Raich, silver, Switzerland's Daniel Albrecht, gold, and Marc Berthod also of Switzerland, bronze, pose for photographers during the presentation ceremony for the Men's Combined at the World Alpine Ski Championships in Are, Sweden, Friday Feb. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)
Are: Albrecht wins super combi; Miller 6th
By Sam Flickinger
Thursday, 08 February 2007
skiracing.com
ARE, Sweden — Switzerland's Daniel Albrecht leapfrogged six fellow racers with better downhill times — including American Bode Miller — to win the men's super combined event Thursday and become the first Swiss world champion in the event since Pirmin Zurbriggen in 1985.
Austria's Benjamin Raich, who clocked the fastest time in the slalom to counter just the 14th-fastest effort in the downhill earlier in the day, finished second by just 0.08 seconds. Swiss Marc Berthod, the current leader in the World Cup combined standings, was third, and teammate Didier Defago fourth in a dominant performance by the Swiss. The nation is tied with Austria with three medals to lead the way at these World Championships. [Check out SR's Web photo gallery here]
Albrecht has only one other top-10 finish in World Championships competition — a seventh in the combined at Bormio in 2005. In January, he was fifth in the super combi in World Cup competition in Wengen, Switzerland, and he was fourth in the traditional combined at the Olympics in Torino.
"I had a good feeling after the downhill. I was happy to be so close to the leaders. I was starting to think about my chances to clinch a medal and made me a little nervous," Albrecht said. "I was hoping eventually to make a medal, but this is really a surprise for me, a great achievement."
Raich picked up the sixth worlds medal of his career, and he credited what he called one of his better downhill runs of the season with getting him in position.
"I had a very good start in the upper part of the course. Maybe I didn’t nail the middle parts so well, the turnier parts, so I couldn't take all the speed into the bottom," Raich said. "I think it's one of my best performances of the season in downhill, and at the end of the day I'm pleased by this performance."
Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, the second-fastest after the downhill, had a big fan following in the grandstand that included 11 bare-chested, cowboy hat-wearing men with one letter of their hero's name painted on their respective chests. But Svindal ran into trouble late in his run on the difficult final pitch. He crossed the line and buried his head in his hands in disbelief. He ended up fifth, posting the 18th-fastest slalom time of the day. The big Norwegian had won the super combi at Beaver Creek, Colorado, on Nov. 30 and has five career World Cup top 10s in the new discipline. He was the combined silver medalist at the 2005 worlds and has been the most consistent skier on the men's tour this season, leading the World Cup overall headed into the World Championships.
Late trouble costs Miller
Miller has struggled to finish slaloms the past two seasons. But he finished 25th in the Schladming World Cup slalom on Jan. 30. Before that, Miller hadn't completed a World Cup slalom since finishing 18th in Kitzbühel on Jan. 22, 2006.
Miller won the downhill and super G at the 2005 worlds, but was a DNF in the combined. That was the traditional two runs of slalom, one run of downhill. The 2007 worlds is the first using the super combi format of one downhill run, one slalom run, which is fairer to both technical and speed specialists. Miller also won the GS and combined at the 2003 worlds at St. Moritz.
A double medalist from the 2005 Bormio worlds, Miller struggled in Tuesday's super G, finishing 24th, with Steven Nyman 12th.
Nyman had a strong showing Thursday, finishing ninth. Fourth-fastest after the morning downhill race, Nyman maintained his lead through most of the slalom run despite a broken pole caused by a slalom gate that also cracked against his wrist and knocked his goggles askew.
"I could only see out of my right eye," Nyman said.
A former junior world champion in slalom, Nyman has grown into more a speed racer in recent years. But he said switching to a stiffer pair of slalom skis only recently has helped manage his power between the gates.
"I just kind of put my mind toward slalom. That’s all it really has come to," he said. "I know I have it in me and I'm healthy to where it can happen.
"[My run] was a little rough run, but I'm happy with it."
Ligety's run interrupted
American Ted Ligety, the reigning Olympic champion in combined, was barreling down the last pitch in slalom when, about six gates from the finish, two course workers — one right in front of Ligety and the other just below him on the slope — couldn't get out of the way in time. He was forced to stop and, after shaking hands with the closest course worker when he came over to apologize for his foulup, was given a rerun, but skied off-course just above the final pitch.
FIS referee Guenter Hujara apologized to Ligety and the U.S. team in a team captains meeting following the race.
Fellow U.S. Ski Teamer T.J. Lanning finished a solid 21st place after posting the 14th-fastest slalom time.
"It was another tough day," U.S. head coach Phil McNichol said. "I was surprised Bode lost as much time. He didn't make any big mistakes but he was hanging on at the end, and you can't just hang on. You have to let it go at the bottom, and he didn't.
"Ted was just too far out in the downhill ... and Nyman was impressive. I thought he had a really good downhill and was pretty solid in slalom until he lost time at the bottom. And T.J. was firing in slalom. No complaints on his effort."
The men have another downhill training run Friday before running downhill Saturday. Miller is the defending downhill world champion and will be joined by Nyman, Scott Macartney and Marco Sullivan.
— Don Cameron and Whitney Childers contributed to this report