Kranjska Gora, Slovenia – Spokane, Wash.’s Will Brandenburg laid down a blistering final run of slalom on Sunday to land an Audi FIS Alpine World Cup career best sixth in Kranjska Gora as Sweden’s Andre Myrer took the win as Croatian Ivica Kostelic extended his World Cup slalom lead when Austrian Marcel Hirscher did not finish.
“I really needed that. It has been a grind of a year and I have been skiing great and haven’t been getting to the finish with a clean run. It’s the first time I have done that and been happy at the finish line of a World Cup,” said Brandenburg. “I have the speed and sometimes I take too much risk. Today I skied smart. My coaches and I have worked on my line and tactics a lot. I took the right tactics today in a first run for where I was starting and in the second run I let it go a little bit more. You always want more but that was a great day.”
Park City, Utah’s Ted Ligety, who won Saturday’s giant slalom by 1.61 seconds, tied for ninth with Manfred Pranger of Austria to secure the Vitranc Trophy signifying the fastest racer over the two-day series.
“I definitely feel like I finally had a good weekend and hopefully I can start moving in the direction of top-15 in slalom standings,” Ligety said. “I don’t know where this puts me right now but I feel like I am moving in that direction.”
Vermont’s Nolan Kasper New Hampshire’s Jimmy Cochran 25th as four Americans made the final. Canada’s Mike Janyk and Brad Spence finished 19th and 26th, respectively.
Sunday’s competition in Kranjska Gora was the final men’s race of the regular season with the top 25 racers in each discipline moving to Schladming, Austria for this week’s World Cup Finals. Both Ligety and Kasper qualified in slalom, while no Canadian men qualified to represent their country in the discipline.
‘The amount of mileage that Ted (Ligety) put in on slalom this summer and through the season is clearly starting to show now,” said Mike Day, technical head coach for the U.S. men’s squad. “For Nolan (Kasper) it took him some time to get up to speed with his injury over the prep period but he is skiing solid and we are excited to go to Schladming and have some fun.”
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Kranjska Gora, Slovenia – Mar. 11, 2012
Men’s Slalom
| Rank | Bib | Name | Year | Nation | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total Time | FIS Points |
| 1 | 1 | MYHRER Andre | 1983 | SWE | 50.59 | 50.40 | 1:40.99 | 0.00 |
| 2 | 5 | DEVILLE Cristian | 1981 | ITA | 50.85 | 50.63 | 1:41.48 | 2.96 |
| 3 | 17 | PINTURAULT Alexis | 1991 | FRA | 52.32 | 49.25 | 1:41.57 | 3.50 |
| 4 | 4 | GROSS Stefano | 1986 | ITA | 51.46 | 50.25 | 1:41.71 | 4.35 |
| 5 | 26 | LARSSON Markus | 1979 | SWE | 52.57 | 49.17 | 1:41.74 | 4.53 |
| 6 | 32 | BRANDENBURG Will | 1987 | USA | 52.50 | 49.36 | 1:41.86 | 5.25 |
| 7 | 6 | NEUREUTHER Felix | 1984 | GER | 51.90 | 50.05 | 1:41.95 | 5.80 |
| 8 | 21 | VALENCIC Mitja | 1978 | SLO | 52.22 | 49.75 | 1:41.97 | 5.92 |
| 9 | 16 | LIGETY Ted | 1984 | USA | 52.43 | 49.59 | 1:42.02 | 6.22 |
| 9 | 8 | PRANGER Manfred | 1978 | AUT | 51.45 | 50.57 | 1:42.02 | 6.22 |