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Grange returns from injury to take Levi slalom
Source: Agencies |
November 15, 2010, Monday
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FRANCE'S Jean-Baptiste Grange shot back to form after a 10-month injury layoff by winning the opening slalom of the new World Cup season in Levi, Finland, yesterday.
The 2009 slalom World Cup winner, who was forced to miss the Vancouver Olympics after injuring his knee in Beaver Creek, Colorado, last December, easily secured his seventh World Cup victory in a combined time of one minute 46.64 seconds on the Levi Black course.
"I had hoped for that. I worked hard in the summer to be back at that level. I just wanted to enjoy my first race but to take the (World Cup leader) red bib after 10 months of injury is just great," said Grange, who last completed a World Cup slalom at the same Levi course a year ago.
Olympic bronze medalist Andre Myhrer of Sweden was second, 0.33 seconds behind, while Croatia's Ivica Kostelic was third, 0.97 seconds adrift.
Austrian favorites flopped in the race. World champion Manfred Pranger finished fifth, while Reinfried Herbst, Benjamin Raich and Marcel Hirscher failed to finish the first leg. American Bode Miller and Italian Olympic gold medalist Giuliano Razzoli were also among the first-run 30 casualties.
Myhrer said he felt calm during the race yesterday.
"I just thought I'd focus on what I have done during training and perform like I do during training and I think I succeeded with that."
Razzoli, who missed the giant slalom season-opener in Soelden, Austria, because of a preseason hand injury, said he still wasn't in great shape.
"I have had only five or six days of training," he said. "Now it's the first race in November and I'm not ready."
Levi, some 100 kilometers north of the arctic circle, is the world's northernmost World Cup venue.
The 2009 slalom World Cup winner, who was forced to miss the Vancouver Olympics after injuring his knee in Beaver Creek, Colorado, last December, easily secured his seventh World Cup victory in a combined time of one minute 46.64 seconds on the Levi Black course.
"I had hoped for that. I worked hard in the summer to be back at that level. I just wanted to enjoy my first race but to take the (World Cup leader) red bib after 10 months of injury is just great," said Grange, who last completed a World Cup slalom at the same Levi course a year ago.
Olympic bronze medalist Andre Myhrer of Sweden was second, 0.33 seconds behind, while Croatia's Ivica Kostelic was third, 0.97 seconds adrift.
Austrian favorites flopped in the race. World champion Manfred Pranger finished fifth, while Reinfried Herbst, Benjamin Raich and Marcel Hirscher failed to finish the first leg. American Bode Miller and Italian Olympic gold medalist Giuliano Razzoli were also among the first-run 30 casualties.
Myhrer said he felt calm during the race yesterday.
"I just thought I'd focus on what I have done during training and perform like I do during training and I think I succeeded with that."
Razzoli, who missed the giant slalom season-opener in Soelden, Austria, because of a preseason hand injury, said he still wasn't in great shape.
"I have had only five or six days of training," he said. "Now it's the first race in November and I'm not ready."
Levi, some 100 kilometers north of the arctic circle, is the world's northernmost World Cup venue.
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