Von Grünigen surprised by seventh place in Aspen’s slalom
Switzerland's skiing star, Michael von Grünigen, has finished in seventh place in Sunday's World Cup slalom event in Aspen, Colorado.
The Bernese skier said he was surprised by his 1:40,09 minute performance – his fastest time in the past three years.
“In September and October of this year, I had hardly done any slalom training,” he said, “but I have taken advantage of the past three days in Colorado to train hard for the event.”
The giant-slalom world champion said he had just wanted to see how he would do in the slalom after such an intense training period.
“I said to myself I’d do one or two slalom races, before I turn my attention to the giant slalom,” he added.” But now I think I may compete in the slalom all season.”
Sharing the Swiss skiers surprise was the race’s winner, Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic, who entered the tournament with a starting number of 64.
The 22-year-old sped to victory with a time of 1:38,93, shaving 3 milliseconds off second placed Giorgio Rocca from Italy.
The almost unknown Croatian is no stranger to skiing success and is following in the footsteps of older sibling, Janica Kostelic. His sister, who is currently nursing an injury, is the former overall skiing world champion.
swissinfo with agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.