Poutiainen takes slalom and World Cup overall lead 
  
SLJEME, ( 20/01/2005 19:47 ) Croatia (AP) _ Tanja Poutiainen of Finland won a women's World Cup slalom race on Thursday, while hometown hero Janica Kostelic missed a gate in her first run and was eliminated. Poutiainen won in a combined time of 1 minute, 50.71 seconds with second for American skier Kristina Koznick and third for Austria's Marlies Schild. Schild led after the first run, but make a mistake early in her second run. The victory took Poutiainen to the top of the overall World Cup standings. Kostelic, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and former World Cup overall champion, learned to ski at Mount Sljeme just outside Zagreb. After missing a gate early in her first run, she skied down the side of the course and then dropped to the snow in tears. 

Schild leads as Kostelic disappoints home crowd   
 
SLJEME, ( 20/01/2005 16:47 ) Croatia (AP) _ Austria's Marlies Schild grabbed the lead after the first run in a women's World Cup slalom Thursday, while three-time Olympic champion Janica Kostelic disappointed her home crowd by missing a gate. Schild, chasing her third straight slalom victory, had a smooth run down the relatively flat Crveni Spust slope for a time of 54.69 seconds, just 0.07 seconds ahead of American skier Sarah Schleper. Finland's Tanja Poutiainen, who leads the slalom standings, was third fastest in 54.98. Kristina Koznick of the United States was fourth in 55.11. A boisterous crowd of 25,000 people turned out for the first World Cup ski event ever staged in Croatia. The race was held on the same hill where Kostelic learned to ski, and spectators waved balloons and banners in her name. Thousands more watched on a huge video screen in Zagreb's main square. But Kostelic missed a gate near the top of the course and was disqualified. A victory would have vaulted Kostelic past Austria's Renate Goetschl to the top of the overall World Cup standings. "Life goes on," Kostelic said. "I feel bad for all the people who have been working on Sljeme day and night to make sure that all goes smoothly, and now I have disappointed them. But let's hope that next year I can do a little better."  
   
Kostelic returns home, to site where she learned to ski  
 
SLJEME, ( 19/01/2005 20:18 ) Croatia (AP) _ Janica Kostelic is back on the modest hill where she learned to ski _ and the three-time Olympic champion is getting quite a homecoming. The 24-year-old Croatian star will race in a slalom Thursday night before a boisterous home crowd in the first World Cup event ever held in this Balkan country. More than 20,000 fans are expected to come to Sljeme, and thousands more will watch the national icon _ dubbed the "Snow Queen" _ on a huge video screen in Zagreb's main square. "I am aware that many people expect me to win, but that won't be easy at all," Kostelic said. "I cannot even imagine, for example, going off the course at the third gate. That would be awful." In 2002 in Salt Lake City, Kostelic became the first Alpine skier to win four medals at one Olympics, taking three golds and a silver.
She missed all of last season after undergoing thyroid surgery and has had four knee operations in recent years. But she's still a threat, winning this season's opening slalom in Aspen in November. Kostelic goes into Thursday's race in second place in the overall World Cup standings behind Austria'a Renate Goetschl. Goetschl has 798 points, nine ahead of Kostelic. A victory at Sljeme could put Kostelic in the No. 1 spot. Her fans expect nothing else. "She never lets us down and she won't do it now," said Franjo Milicevic, a 22-year-old student, proudly displaying a badge on his backpack to show he supports Kostelic.
"We'll surely help by screaming, shouting and rooting for her all the way down." For Zagreb residents, Sljeme used to be a place for recreational skiing when there was no money or time to travel to established ski resorts in Austria or Italy. Few believed the 1,035-meter (3,396 fit) hill and its rocky, winding slope would ever host a World Cup race. But the city has invested at least 85 million kuna (¤1 million; US$ 1.4 million) to upgrade the course and the lifts. ski cannons were also installed to produce artificial snow, although the machines won't be needed this week. Zagreb woke up under snow on Wednesday and more is forecast for Thursday. 

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