ALPINE SKI. ADELBODEN, Switzerland—Austria's Marcel Hirscher finished the fastest in both giant slalom runs today to take home back-to-back wins this week—Thursday, "Snow King" of Zagreb, today, king of the "Classic" Adelboden. 
 
His teammate, Benjamin Raich, skied from six back after the first run to take second place—his first podium of the season—only missing the top by .08 seconds. Massimiliano Blardone was just .02 behind Raich to take 3rd.
 
GS world champion Ted Ligety, who was trailing Hirscher by .07 after the first run, was on track to jump into first place during his fast, aggressive second run. Until, that is, he made a mistake at the steep bottom section, having to check some speed, and subsequently landed in 4th place (just .14 behind Hirscher).
 
It was certainly no walk in the park for the 22-year-old Hirscher. All racers had to fight deteriorating weather as calm and cloudy conditions turned into a snowy, flat light challenge. There was no shortage of action. Hirscher lost his pole when his right hand hit the third to last gate on his first run. Nearly half the field in the first run didn't finish, along with U.S.'s Bode Miller. Then came the second run—snow continued to make the visibility even worse. Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal crashed, Czech's Ondrej Bank skied out, and Austria's Hannes Reichelt went down, too.
 
On top of that, Switzerland's Beat Feuz, almost collided with an unsuspecting course worker. Feuz got to have a "do over" but 10 racers later (in worsening visibility and course conditions); he ended not far from where he started, in 26th place.

FISalpine.com
Saturday 7 January 2012

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