No joy for Swiss as Aamodt clinches Wengen slalom win

The Norwegian, Kjetil-Andre Aamodt, has won the World Cup slalom at Wengen in the Bernese Oberland. It was a race the Swiss skiers will want to forget.

Kjetil-Andre Aamodt of Norway has won the World Cup slalom at Wengen in the Bernese Oberland.

Aamodt demonstrated all his experience to race to the 17th World Cup win of his career, and his first in slalom.

The Norwegian was fourth after the first leg, but produced a storming run to claim victory in a combined time of one minute 44.87 seconds – over half a second faster than his compatriot, Ole-Christian Furuseth.

The leader at the halfway point, Jure Kosir, had a sluggish second run and slipped to ninth. But two other Slovenes, Drago Grubelnik and Matjaz Vrhovnik, finished third and fourth.

It was a largely disappointing day for the Swiss skiers. The home favourite, Didier Plaschy, went out on the first run, as did Marco Casanova. The veterans, Michael von Grünigen and Paul Accola, failed to cover themselves in glory.

The most impressive Swiss performance of the day came from Urs Imboden, who climbed from 23rd after the first leg to a respectable 13th.

But the Swiss still look far from being world beaters. Even on their home slopes, they were outclassed by the better-organised teams from Norway, Slovenia and Italy.

Aamodt’s second win of the season – his first was in the giant slalom at Val d’Isère – allowed him to keep up the pressure on Austria’s Hermann Maier in the overall World Cup standings – even though the gap remains a mammoth 350 points.

As expected, it was Austria that tasted victory in Saturday’s downhill – the 70th running of the classic Lauberhorn race. But Maier, the pre-race favourite, had to settle for second place behind Josef “Pepi” Strobl. Indeed, five Austrians occupied the top seven places.

Swiss skiers had a better downhill than slalom, with Didier Cuche and Bruno Kernen finishing equal eighth. For Kernen, the 1997 World Champion, it represented proof that his rehabilitation after last year’s knee operation is back on track.

Cuche, registering his best finish of the season, jumped to 11th on the World Cup rankings. He’s now the highest-placed Swiss.

Meanwhile, his teammate, Silvano Beltrametti, who suffered a bad crash at the famous Ziel-S finish of the downhill, will undergo medical tests on Monday after sustaining chest injuries and concussion.

By Roy Probert