BORMIO, ( 03/02/2005 19:36 ) Italy (AP) _ Austrian skier Benjamin Raich won the grueling combined race at the world championships for his first major title on Thursday. Raich, the bronze medalist in last Saturday's super-G, was fifth after the opening downhill leg and took the lead by posting the fastest time in the first of two slalom runs. He concluded by coasting to victory with the seventh-fastest time in the final slalom leg, run under the lights. "It was a great day for me," Raich said. "I made a good downhill run and also had decent slalom runs.
"This is my fourth time competing at a world championship and this is the first time I'm world champion. It was hard work." Raich's total combined time on the Stelvio course was 3 minutes, 19.10 seconds. Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal earned the silver medal, 0.91 seconds behind, and Italy's Giorgio Rocca won the bronze, 0.98 back. Austria's Michael Walchhofer, the leader after the downhill portion, was fourth. Svindal and Rocca had to wait a few extra minutes to learn where they finished while race officials examined videotape. They eventually ruled that Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway straddled a gate midway through his final run. Aamodt was second until being disqualified. "I wasn't sure if I straddled, I couldn't tell, that's why I continued," Aamodt said.
Raich, a winner of 15 races in his World Cup career, won the bronze medal in the combined at the 2002 Olympics and captured the only World Cup combined race this season in Wengen, Switzerland. "This year has been very good for me. I'm in great shape," Raich said. "It's very hard to win this event. I wasn't so good in downhill, I did a lot of work the last two years." He entered the combined as a big favorite alongside Miller, the only skier he trails in the overall World Cup standings. Miller, the previous world champion in combined, lost his left ski about 15 seconds into his downhill run, but to the fans' delight, he still nearly completed the course on one ski, even dropping into the tuck position on occasion, before eventually falling to the snow exhausted shortly before the finish.
"I felt fine. There was nothing I could do. The binding was fine. It was OK with the first hit and it released on the second hit," Miller said. Miller won the super-G to open the worlds on Saturday and is one of the few skiers who plans to enter all six events here. Svindal's silver extended the streak of a Norwegian man on the combined podium at every worlds since 1993. Aamodt and Lasse Kjus, who finished sixth, started the streak. "I knew that after Raich and Miller it was really open and I could grab a medal, so it went perfectly," Svindal said. Rocca's bronze gave host Italy its second medal of the championships after Lucia Recchia won silver in the women's super-G. "It was a good day, not only for me, but also for the fans," said Rocca, a native of nearby Livigno. He will also be a favorite in the slalom.
Raich could potentially medal in three more events _ giant slalom, slalom and the new team event that will conclude the worlds on Feb. 13. "This is a very good championship for me _ two medals and three more disciplines," Raich said, adding that he would not start training for his next race _ giant slalom _ until Saturday. "Tomorrow I'm just going to sleep and make up my lost energy," he said.  

Aamodt takes heart from combined performance despite disqualification 
 
BORMIO, ( 04/02/2005 09:38 ) Italy (AP) _ Norwegian ski great Kjetil-Andre Aamodt looked on the bright side of being disqualified and booted off the podium after the world championship combined race on Thursday. "It gives me motivation to go on one more year," said Aamodt. "To stay on for Turin." Having won five Olympic gold medals and five world titles, Aamodt could afford to be philosophical about losing a silver medal in the grueling combined, which adds the times from a downhill and two slaloms. He'd finished runner-up to new champion Benjamin Raich of Austria but a video review showed he'd straddled a gate midway down. Instead, countryman Aksel Lund Svindal placed second, and Italian favorite Giorgio Rocca received the bronze. "I was 90 percent sure I'd straddled but I wanted to ski down and then check the video," Aamodt said. "I'm 33 years old. I won medals before. It's gone my way many times. This time it didn't go my way. It's part of the game." Aamodt returned this year after breaking his ankle in a training accident that kept him out all of last season, and the ankle still hurt. He said his brush with silver and the newfound confidence that he still had what it takes, will spur him on to ski in the 2006 Turin Winter Games. Aamodt and teammate Lasse Kjus have helped make Norway an Alpine powerhouse for more than a decade. He's the only active skier to have won World Cup races in each of Alpine skiing's five disciplines _ downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and combined. His five Olympic golds, two silvers and two bronzes, as well as five world championship golds, four silvers and three bronzes, give him the all-time record in Alpine medals for both the worlds and Olympics. Kjus, the winner of the overall World Cup title in 1996 and 1999, has accumulated 11 world championship medals and five Olympic medals, including a gold. They have been waiting for the next generation of Norwegian skiers to break through before they take their well-deserved retirements, and like what they see in Svindal. "We have a new guy now, Aksel," Aamodt said, sounding almost relieved. "I'm very happy for him. He really coped with the pressure today. He skied well. He deserved the medal. "Me and Lasse are going to retire, sit on the couch and watch him for a change. But not just now." Aamodt hadn't skied slalom since the 2002-03 season, before his ankle injury. "I started skiing slalom again Jan. 5," he said. "It was two years since I tried the slalom skis, so it's been improving every day but today the second run was quite easy. That helped me a little."