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Unbeatable Kostelic maintains perfect slalom record
SESTRIERE, Italy (AP) -- Looking unbeatable between the gates, Croatian teenager Janica Kostelic on Wednesday won her fourth straight slalom race this season on the World Cup circuit. Kostelic was the fastest in the first run and just a bit more cautious in the second leg, designed by her father-coach Ante, to set a winning combined time of one minute, 43.47 seconds down the Giovanni Agnelli course. She beat second-place Trine Bakke of Norway by 0.41 seconds. Kristina Koznick of the United States clinched a podium finish, in third place, 0.48 seconds behind the winner. Kostelic, who returned to action triumphantly this season following a bad knee injury which sidelined her for nearly one year, clocked run times of 50.47 and 53.00. She was overjoyed at the finish line for keeping up her winning streak. "It was a close win and at one moment I thought I could have been satisfied with a second or third place," Kostelic said. "I don't feel invincible and I'm not thinking of setting records. I'm relaxed, I'm enjoying skiing," she said. The record of straight wins in the women's circuit -- seven -- belongs to retired Swiss ace Vreni Schneider. Kostelic's four wins this season added to consecutive slalom victories achieved in Serre Chevalier and Sestriere last year before the horrible crash in a downhill practice at St. Moritz in which she tore four right knee ligaments. Although she did not start in downhill races and some Super-Gs this season, Kostelic climbed to fourth place in the overall Cup standings, with 519 points. She leads the slalom points with a perfect total of 400 in four events. Koznick, who has been training and skiing independently from the U.S. team this season, said she was happy with her second season podium and that she felt more confident about the next races. "I always ski to win. This time I made a few mistakes," said Koznick, who has a career record of four World Cup wins. She is the top American skier in the points tables -- 14th overall and fourth in slalom. Other top finishers included Austrian Karin Koellerer (4th), Claudia Riegler of New Zealand (5th) and France's Christel Saioni who was tied with Slovenian Urska Horvath for sixth place. World Cup leader Martina Ertl of Germany was disqualified after the first run on the ground her skis were thinner than the limit. Race stewards said that Ertl's skis were fractionally narrower under the boot than the six-centimeter minimum allowed under FIS rules. Ertl, who had two second places in the previous season slaloms, safely kept first place in the overall Cup standings at 610 points as her closest pursuers did not capitalize in Wednesday's slalom. Regine Cavagnoud and Michaela Dorfmeister did not start while defending World Cup champion Renate Goetschl of Austria crashed out in the first run. Those who did not finish included Finland's Henna Raita, second after the first run, and American Sarah Schleper, second to Kostelic in the previous Sestriere slalom on December 10. The U.S. skier fell in the first run shortly after clocking one of the fastest split times. Young Austrian Carina Raich set the fastest second run -- 0.20 faster than the winner in 52.80 to vault herself from a 29th first-run place to 15th in the combined time. Kostelic can try to make it five in the next World Cup slalom scheduled at Semmering, Austria, on December 30.
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