Austria's Manfred Pranger also celebrated his first FIS gold medal at Val d'Isère, earning his men's team its only title at the World Championships by winning a dramatic slalom on Sunday.

Pranger, the fastest skier in the first run, successfully defended his lead afterwards while many other favorites failed to master the steep, icy 'La Face' course on Bellevarde. He saved his ski-mad nation from the embarrassment of leaving those World Championships without a men's title for the first time since 1997.

The 31-year-old, who posted his first World Cup slalom win in nearly four years in Wengen last month, held his nerves in the second run to present Austria with their third successive world slalom title after beating by a few tenths of a second France's Julien Lizeroux, while Michael Janyk clinched a historical first slalom medal for Canada in finishing 3rd.

Germany's Felix Neureuther came in 4th while so many pre-race favorites skied out in the first or the second. Among them Italy's Giorgio Rocca and his teammate Manfred Moelgg, Austria's Reinfried Herbst and Benjamin Raich as well as Sweden's Johan Brolenius and France's Jean-Baptiste Grange, 2nd and 3rd after the opening leg.

A dream came through for Pranger.

"I'd been dreaming about this for so long," said Pranger, who became a father of a boy named Mario two weeks ago. "After all I've been through, this is fantastic," added the Austrian, whose career has been constantly hampered by injuries over the past four years. "First a son and now this. Life couldn't be better."

"I have often been unlucky in major events, skiing out in second runs after clocking some of the fastest times in the first runs," he also explained. "My goal prior the second run after seeing some of my main rivals skiing out was to get any medal. The course conditions were extremely demanding and it was easy to make a mistake."

"Only medals counted here and it's normal that so many skiers went out on such a treacherous slope. In a World Cup race, over 25 skiers would have been classified but today everybody fought much harder to get onto the podium."

"I didn't ski too aggressively in the first gates, but after a while I felt very confident again so I decided to push my skis harder at the bottom. Then I gave all that I had in me in the last gates. At the arrival, I needed a few seconds to find my name of the timing board and I couldn't believe it when I saw my name on top of the rankings. It was crazy."

Despite Pranger's triumph, Austria's didn't manage to end as usual the medal table in first place - this time the Swiss were more successful with a total of six medals - one more than their Austrian rivals. Four years ago, the Swiss team didn't clinch a single medal at Bormio, in Italy!

Another silver medal for Lizeroux.

France's Julien Lizeroux thrilled the 30,000 crowd attending the final event of the fortnight at the French Alps resort by grabbing his second silver medal of the Val d'Isère championships after one in last week's Super-combined. He was 4th after the first run but he achieved once more an impressive comeback in the second run.

"Winning two silver medals is great but I can't help feeling just a little bit disappointed," he said after his run. "Becoming a World Champion at home would have been so special and I would have been so happy to share the podium with Jean-Baptiste Grange," added the Frenchman, who posted his first World Cup win in slalom in Kitzbühel last month."

"I was very proud to be French today at the start of my second run seeing that huge crowd routing for us. It was great to compete as last time on such a spectacular and well prepared slope," also said the skier from La Plagne who lost his older brother Yoann last summer in a base-jump accident. "It was wonderful to share those intense moments here with my family, my friends, my fans and thousands of spectators who attended the race."

"I'm now looking forward for more exciting races in the next month and I hope that Grange will have more luck than here. He has been charging all the time and he can leave Val d'Isère without any regret because he tried so hard to get gold. You definitely need some luck at those kinds of events."

Go Canada, Go!

Michael Janyk was a surprise bronze medallist giving Canada more to celebrate a year before the Winter Olympics in Vancouver after John Kucera's shock victory in the downhill. "This is just great with Vancouver coming," Janyk said after the race. "The team's moral has been strongly boosted last week with John Kucera's amazing win in downhill. We were all so motivated afterwards," added the skier from Whistler Mountain, where the alpine events of the next Olympics are taking place in a year.

"I felt confident before the race because I like tough slopes as this one. I was pretty fast in training earlier this week and I didn't hold anything back today," also said the Canadian who suffered a bad knee injury two years ago. "Winning Canada's first ever slalom medal is huge, and I'm very proud to have achieved such a performance today. I aim now to improve my standings in the slalom rankings and be ready for a great 2010 season. I'm living only a five-minute walk away from the Olympic slope which I know as my pocket. It will be such an exciting event for our family."

With a total of twelve nations winning medals at Val d'Isère, many team managers are returning with a great smile on their face. Other ones had a harder time during the past two weeks, such as the Swedish team which excelled at Are two years with a total of seven medals including four from Anja Paerson who failed to deliver any podium finish in France. It's the first time since 2001 that the skier from Taernaby leaves a big event without a gold medal.

It was also a very disappointing event for Bode Miller, who skied out in the second run today while trying hard to win his first slalom gold medal after clinching gold in all other four disciplines. The skier from New Hampshire has not won a single race this season yet there are still many races left this winter on his agenda.

The World Cup tour resumes next week with races at Sestriere for the men and Tarvisio for the women. Lindsey Vonn, Anja Paerson, Maria Riesch on the women's side, Ivica Kostelic, Benjamin Raich, Bode Miller, Aksel Lund Svindal and Didier Cuche on the men's side are the main contenders for the Overall title this season.

Francois Thomazeau
www.valdisere2009.org
Sunday, 15 February 2009