LILLEHAMMER, Norway (Reuters) - Kalle Palander became Finland's first World Cup Alpine ski champion when he won the slalom trophy with a second place in the season's final race on Sunday. Palander missed out on his fifth successive race victory, finishing 0.41 seconds behind Italian Giorgio Rocca's time of one minute 45.44 seconds.

Kalle Palander

But second place was enough to stop last year's champion Ivica Kostelic of Croatia taking the cup for a second time.

Kostelic, seventh in Sunday's race, hoisted Palander on to his shoulder in the finish area as the Finn celebrated with Rocca and Austrian Manfred Pranger who earned the first podium place of his career with third.

Reuters, 16.03.2003 

Palander wins slalom title with second-place behind Rocca by AP

HAFJELL, Norway - The streak ended, but it didn't matter much for Kalle Palander.

Palander, 25, winner of four straight World Cup slaloms, became the first Finn to win a World Cup alpine ski title by finishing runner-up in Sunday's season finale.

Giorgio Rocca

Italy's Giorgio Rocca won the race for his second triumph of the season, clocking a two-run total of 1 minute, 45.44 seconds down the Olympia course where the gate races were held during the 1994 Winter Olympics at Lillehammer.

Palander was 0.41 off Rocca's pace. Manfred Pranger of Austria was third, 0.54 back, for his first podium finish ever in the slalom.

Croatia's Ivica Kostelic, the older brother of women's overall champion Janica Kostelic, wound up seventh as he lost his bid to retain the slalom title. He was 1.36 behind.

"It's fantastic, of course, to win the slalom title," said Palander, whose first major slalom achievement was a gold medal at the 1999 World Championships in Vail, Colorado. "For the first time in my life I felt pressure before the second run. It felt funny."

Palander led Kostelic by only 34 points — 100 goes to the winner — and he knew he had to ski well in the last race.

"I heard that Ivica had taken the lead and nobody wanted to tell me more," Palander said. "But just before my start I heard the PA announcer say that Ivica was fifth. Then I thought I can't afford to ski out. It went off very well and I even took some risks on the upper part of the course. I thought it would be best not to ski safe early.

"I felt well because I had a couple of good stretches and towards the end I knew that there were a couple of very difficult gates, so I slowed down a bit. I knew that my run would be enough to come high up."

Kostelic said he wasn't surprised that Palander finished the season so strongly with four wins in the last five slaloms.

"He was always there somewhere," Kostelic said. "And you can always expect that a guy who is fourth a few times earlier in the season will eventually come through."

Austria's Benjamin Raich, the 2001 World Cup slalom champ who led Palander by 0.09 after the morning run, dropped to eighth, 1.72 back.

Jean-Pierre Vidal, last year's Olympic champion from France, didn't finish the first run.

Erik Schlopy tied for ninth and was the top American. Chip Knight took 16th. Bode Miller was disqualified in the second run.

Palander finished the GS standings with 658 points while Kostelic had 580.

Kalle Palander

Stephan Eberharter of Austria, who didn't enter the slalom, topped the final overall standings with 1,333 points. Miller was runnerup with 1,100 followed by Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt 940) and Palander (718).

Daron Rahlves, who won back-to-back downhills at nearby Kvitfjell three years ago for his first World Cup triumphs, was the other American to make the top 10, finishing sixth (647 points).

By STEPHAN NASSTROM, AP Sports Writer, 16.03.2003

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