Schladming, Austria – Ted Ligety, of Park City, Utah, battled huge ruts and continuous snowfall to finish sixth Tuesday in the Schladming night slalom in front of 45,000 raucous fans as hometown hero Marcel Hirscher, who has been at the center of a huge gate straddling controversy over the past few days, won the event for his sixth World Cup victory this season.

Italy’s Stefano Gross was second in and Austria’s Mario Matt rounded out the podium in third.

It was Ligety’s best slalom finish since January of 2011 and launched him back into fourth in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall standings. Croatian Ivica Kostelic was fourth Tuesday night, yet retained his lead in both the overall and slalom standings.

“Schladming is a super cool slalom, it always has been like that. You can see what the crowd is right now, and the second run increases, there are flares going off. You can hear the crowd sometimes, which never happens in ski races normally,” Ligety said of the enormous mass of spectators lining the course. “You’re focused, you never hear the crowd. Here you definitely hear it and feel it. It’s cool to be able to race in a place where they really appreciate what you’re doing and appreciate the sport.

“My slalom has been coming along this year,” Ligety added. “It would have been nice to be a little faster in each run, but things are definitely moving in the right direction.”

Other than Ligety’s performance it was a difficult night for the U.S. Ski Team men. Will Brandenburg, of Spokane, Wash., was disqualified from the first run. Nolan Kasper, of Warren, Vt., and Seppi Stiegler of Jackson Hole Wyo., the younger brother of women’s alpine ski racer Resi Stiegler competing in his first World Cup start, failed to qualify for the finals. Neither Jimmy Cochran (Keene, N.H.), Colby Granstrom (Lake Stevens, Wash.) nor Michael Ankeny (Deephaven, Minn.) finished their first run.

Canadians fared little better. Brad Spence, of Calgary, Alberta,  laid down a hard-charging second run to finish 17th and claim his fourth top 20 result this season just ahead of Mike Janyk, of Whistler, British Columbia, who placed 20th.

“This hill is incredibly tough. It’s difficult to ski well from top to bottom,” said Spence. “This is my third year here and it’s the first time I’ve finished the first run. It was a little bit of a learning experience because I haven’t skied the bottom before.”

On a day when skiers starting at the back of the pack faced an uphill battle to finish in the top 30 in the first run, four other Canadians did not qualify for the second run. Pat Biggs, of Ottawa, Ontario, was 40^th after the first run, closely followed by Calgary’s Trevor White, who was 41^st. Sasha Zaitsoff, of Queens Bay, British Columbia, started 61^st and finished 47^th, while Paul Stutz, of Banff, Alberta, was disqualified.

The men’s World Cup tour moves to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany for a downhill and super G this weekend.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Schladming, Austria – Jan. 24, 2012
Men’s Slalom