Skiing: Berthod posts first career World Cup victory

Marc Berthod won a World Cup race for the first time yesterday, ending a seven-year winless streak in slalom for the Swiss men.

It was also the first World Cup win in any discipline for a Swiss man in almost three years and 103 races.

The 23-year-old Berthod won with a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 47.42 seconds.

"This is so cool," Berthod said. "My goal this morning was to qualify for the second run and I won the race. It's a huge surprise."

Benjamin Raich of Austria, the Olympic champion, was second, .26 back, and Mario Matt was third, .38 behind Berthod. It was Matt's first podium finish since winning a slalom at the World Cup finals in 2005.

It rained during the first leg and Berthod, the 60th skier to start, had to deal with deteriorating conditions on the wet and slushy Kuonisbaergli course. He finished 27th in the opening leg to qualify for the second.

The top 30 skiers in the opening leg qualify for the second but race in reverse order. That meant Berthod was fourth to start the final leg and he enjoyed better, cleaner course conditions.

Berthod watched as one skier after another was unable to better his time.

"I had a strong lead at the finish, so I was very pleased when it became a top 20 potential result, and then a top 15, and then a top five, and then a podium. And suddenly there was nobody left at the start. It was a great time for me," Berthod said.

Berthod had the fastest second leg, 1.53 seconds quicker than Manfred Moelgg of Italy.

"He was three seconds behind me in first run but I saw he had a strong second run on the TV," Raich said. "Normally it's impossible to come from so far back to win but sometimes conditions are so difficult and then it's possible.

"When this situation occurs you need to make good runs and make the most of it. He did that."

The last Swiss man to win a World Cup race was Didier Cuche, who won a downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in 2004. The last Swiss man to win a World Cup slalom was Didier Plaschy at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, in 1999.

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia, who started 64th in a slalom in Aspen, Colorado, in 2001, won with the highest bib number.

Markus Larsson of Sweden, who posted the fastest time in the opening leg, was fifth, trailing by 0.55.

However, he still leads the discipline standings with 225 points after four races. Raich moved from fifth into second with 180 points, while World Cup slalom champion Giorgio Rocca of Italy is third with 150.

Only nine of the first 15 skiers - the circuit's best-ranked racers - completed their first runs.

Ted Ligety, the runner-up in the slalom at Alta Badia, Italy, twice missed a gate and did not finish.

Ligety skidded onto his side just a few gates into his run. The Olympic combined gold medalist hiked back up to ski the gate he'd missed but went out again a little lower down.

Andre Myrer of Sweden, the winner of the slalom at Beaver Creek, Colorado, in December, also skidded out with slush shooting into the air behind him.

Overall leader Aksel Lund Svindal also failed to finish his first run, but the Norwegian still leads the overall rankings after 18 races with 639 points.

Cuche is second with 571 points, while Bode Miller is third with 540. Raich is fourth with 458.

Miller, 11th after the opening run, lost his right ski midway down the second leg. He was the only American skier to qualify for the second leg, crossing 11th, but has not completed a slalom in almost a year.

Miller has completed only three of his last 19 World Cup slalom races. The last time he finished a slalom was Jan. 22 at Kitzbuehel, Austria, where he finished 18th. His last World Cup slalom victory came in December 2004 at Sestriere, Italy.