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Kostelic injured during practice
Posted: Saturday December 11, 1999 03:27 PM
SESTRIERE, Italy (Reuters) -- Croatian teenager Janica Kostelic has injured her right hip and thigh in training and may miss Sunday's World Cup slalom at Sestriere. Kostelic fell during a practice run at the French resort of Val D'Isere on Friday. She was having difficulty walking when her team made the short journey across the French border to northwestern Italy later that day. "She had a bad spill at Val D'Isere and injured her right thigh and badly bruised her right side," a spokesman for the race organizers in Sestriere said on Saturday. "She will be testing herself today but she won't back a decision on whether she's fit to race or not until tomorrow morning, right before the race." Kostelic is bidding for a second consecutive slalom victory following her emphatic victory in the French resort of Serre Chevalier, where she finished 1.78 seconds ahead of her rivals to claim her first World Cup triumph. That propelled her briefly to the top of the standings but she has since been eclipsed by Austrian Michaela Dorfmeister, who won Thursday's giant slalom at Val D'Isere. Dorfmeister leads on 342 points to Kostelic's 320. Italy's speed specialist Isolde Kostner is a point further back. Aged 17 and competing in only her second World Cup season, Kostelic had been placed in the top 10 each time she had raced before the circuit moved to Val D'Isere last week. But she looked tired in France, finishing 15th in Wednesday's super-G and 14th in Thursday's giant slalom. If she races on Sunday, her main rival will be Norwegian Trine Bakke, the only woman to have finished on both World Cup slalom podiums this season. Bakke, third in the season opener at Copper Mountain and second behind Kostelic at Serre Chevalier, is reaping the benefits of her decision to race only in slalom this year. Other contenders are likely to be Austria's reigning World Cup slalom champion Sabine Egger, third in Serre Chevalier, and Olympic champion Zali Steggall, who is gradually adjusting to a recent change of skis. Sunday's race is the first top class women's slalom at Sestriere since January 1997, when Deborah Compagnoni won the world championship title. Since then the resort, which will stage the 2006 Winter Olympics, has hosted the men's World Cup. Race organizers said 10 centimetres of snow had fallen overnight between Friday and Saturday and the piste was in excellent condition. The temperature was -6 degrees centigrade and the sky was clear.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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