WENGEN, Switzerland — Ivica Kostelic of Croatia extended his runaway start to 2011, winning a men’s World Cup slalom Sunday on the Lauberhorn course.
Kostelic had a combined two-run time of 1 minute, 45.28 seconds to stretch his lead in the World Cup overall and slalom standings.
He also won the super-combined here Friday as part of a career-best 15-day stretch that includes four World Cup victories, plus second- and fifth-place finishes.
“For sure, it’s the best weekend of my career and I’m very happy that it happened in Wengen,” Kostelic said. “It’s a beautiful thing to be here.”
Marcel Hirscher of Austria led after the first run, but finished 0.93 seconds behind in second place. Jean-Baptiste Grange of France was third, trailing Kostelic by 0.99.
“You really had to attack the second run,” said Kostelic, who was 1.02 faster than Hirscher in the second leg.
David Chodounsky was the only U.S. skier to advance out of the first run, finishing a career best 19th. Bode Miller straddled the third gate and Ted Ligety spilled midway down. Will Brandenburg misjudged his exit from the start house and straddled the first gate.
Chodounsky, who learned to ski on the same hill as childhood friend Lindsey Vonn, used the sixth-fastest time of the afternoon run to finish 2.23 behind Kostelic.
“Second run I had a great start position, good snow, so I just tried to take full advantage of it,” Chodounsky said.
Women’s race called off.
The women’s World Cup slalom race was called off because of warm weather in Slovenia. Temperatures reached 60 degrees.
