Men's Slalom
Slovenia's Matjaz Vrhovnik was rewarded for his consistency in slalom this season with the first World Cup win of his career in Sunday´s slalom at Adelboden, Switzerland. Before this season, the skier from Ljubljana never reached the top-10 in a World Cup race.

	Vrhovnik

The 27-year-old Slovene, who placed in the top-10 in every slalom race this season, beat the best gate skier of the season, Norway's Kjetil Aamodt, by only 21/100 of a second. Aamodt, still fighting for the Overall title against Austria's Hermann Maier, reached his fifth slalom podium of the season today. He still holds the lead in the slalom World Cup standings by 49 points — but with three more slalom races to go, he will have to fight until the end to win his first Crystal Globe since 1994.

Austria's newcomer Mario Matt proved that he's a contender, finishing 3rd at 43/100 behind. It was his first start within the first seed in a slalom race. Matt's teammate Thomas Stangassinger is suffering from a cold and didn't come to Adelboden. Rainer Schoenfelder, the surprise winner at Todtnau, skied out in the second run, as did his teammate Benjamin Raich, who was fighting for another spot on the podium. American Erik Schloppy reached an unprecedented 16th place - his best World Cup result by far this season.

"I had a great series of good results before coming here and I was ready to take a lot of risks to win a race. I was only 50th in the international ranking at the start of the season and now I'm fighting for the slalom Cup. It's incredible...." — Matjaz Vrhovnik (SLO)

With his victory, Vrhovnik became the sixth skier in eight races, and fifth in a row, to have celebrated his first World Cup victory in slalom this season. Norway's Finn Christian Jagge, who straddled a gate in the second run after a strong performance in the first one, is the only veteran to have won a slalom this winter, in Italy's Madonna di Campiglio.

The introduction of the new and shorter carving slalom skis has totally revolutionized this alpine discipline. Vrhovnik was aiming for the first major success in his career since finishing 3rd in Chamonix in January. A member of the national team for eight years, he had enough experience and momentum to achieve an excellent second run today and stayed ahead of Aamodt, after beating him in the first run by almost half a second.

"I can't believe it, I have been fighting so hard and so long for this," Vrhovnik said after the race. "The conditions were really difficult because of the bad weather and the course was quite demanding, especially in the last steep section.

"I had a great series of good results before coming here and I was ready to take a lot of risks to win a race. I was only 50th in the international ranking at the start of the season and now I'm fighting for the slalom Cup. It's incredible. I'm really lucky to have tested the new short skis last spring. They totally changed my attitude. I felt from the beginning that I could compete with the best and I gained confidence race after race. I have also worked a lot on my mental approach. I'm more focused and stronger, too, in my mind."

Mario Matt, the tall skier from St. Anton, Austria, shot to prominence last month, coming from the back of the field to claim his first career win at Kitzbühel. After that win, his 4th place two weeks ago in Todtnau, and today's 3rd place finish, Matt definitely confirmed that, at only 20 years of age, he has a shot at World Cup prominence.

	Matt

Matt was just ahead of Norway's Olympic champion Hans-Petter Buraas, who seems to have regained part of his old form with 4th place, his best finish so far this season. His teammate Ole-Kristian Furuseth, who, along with Finn Christian Jagge, is a team veteran, was only 14th after achieving a series of top-5 result since Chamonix.

Kjetil Aamodt was quite pleased by his performance, since he feels pretty tired after this long season. He wants to focus now on slalom in the hope to win at least a specialty cup, since he has lost hope that he'll beat Hermann Maier in the Overall classification.

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Maier has not decided whether to fly to Korea for the next technical events, or to rest at home before the speed events in Norway, early next month. His decision will depend on the place where yesterday's giant slalom — cancelled due to bad weather — is rescheduled. It's possible that the FIS will put it in Austria's Hinterstoder, where another GS race is already planned for March 9-11.

"For me, Maier can relax and stay home, I don't have a serious chance to beat him in the Overall standings this season, even if I win the three last slaloms. There are enough speed events for him to stay out of reach for me," said Aamodt. "It would be tough for me to beat him in any of his events and I prefer to concentrate on that slalom Cup, which I have never won, so far. It will also be difficult, since Matjaz can focus on slalom only while I compete in all four events."

Despite Aamodt's efforts, Maier continues to hold a comfortable lead in the Overall World Cup standings, his 1,570 points leaving him 346 clear of the Norwegian.

Hermann is expected to announce his plans on Monday. In 1998, he raced in Korea's Yong Pyong after his fantastic wins in the Nagano Olympics, and finished 3rd in the giant slalom won by his arch-rival Michael von Grunigen. Unfortunately, a back injury kept him off the course the following week in Kvitfjell, Norway, where he won the super G last season. "The Herminator" said at Adelboden that he needs some rest before the three speed races on the Olympic run in Norway, in order to regain his momentum in downhill and super G.

Last week, Maier surprisingly failed to win the two super Gs at St. Anton and he needs more good results to secure his lead in the downhill and super G World Cup standings. Italy's Kristian Ghedina and his teammate Franz Werner are both close to him in this classification.

— Manuele Joyce, MountainZone.com World Cup Correspondent