Alpineski

Injured Kostelic goes home for treatment

Injured Kostelic goes home for treatmentVal d'Isere, France  - Overall W

2ND ROUNDUP: Kucera clinches downhill gold in ski worlds upset

Kucera clinches downhill gold in ski worlds upsetVal d'Isere, France - John Kucera of Canada upset the favourites to win the men's downhill at the alpine ski world championships in Val d'Isere on Saturday.

Kucera posted 2 minutes 07.01 seconds, to edge super-g winner Didier Cuche of Switzerland by four hundredths of a second.

Fellow Swiss Carlo Janka was 0.94 seconds back in third place.

Kucera took advantage of an early start in a fog-interrupted race to give Canada a first-ever world championship downhill gold.

Vonn triumphs in super-g to extend World Cup lead

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany  - Lindsey Vonn of the United States claimed her fourth World Cup victory of the season with a commanding super-g performance in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Sunday.

It was a second successive win for the reigning World Cup champion and the 19th of her career following a slalom victory on Friday.

Sweden's Anja Paerson also underlined her ascendant form by finishing second, with fellow Swede Jessica Lindell-Vikarby third.

Vonn posted 1 minute 22.16 seconds on the newly-designed Kandahar course, 0.39 seconds up on Paerson, with Lindell-Vikarby, winner of the previous super-g in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, 0.72 seconds back.

Swiss skier Albrecht remains in coma

Innsbruck, Austria  - Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht remained in an induced coma Sunday as doctors focused on treating lung injuries suffered when he crashed heavily
10 days ago.

The Innsbruck University Hospital said Sunday that Albrecht, 25, continues to require artificial respiration to treat some contraction of the lung.

An "improvement of the lung's function" has been observed after doctors induced a deeper coma over the weekend, the hospital said. An initial light reduction of the induced coma had brought no improvement.

Home delight as Herbst wins slalom night race in Schladming

Reinfried Herbst Schladming, Austria  - Local fans had plenty to cheer about on Tuesday as Reinfried Herbst won a night slalom World Cup event held under floodlights in Schladming.

There was even more joy for the 50,000 crowd as Manfred Pranger took second place ahead of the overall World Cup leader Ivica Kostelic, who managed to expand his lead from Austrian Benjamin Raich.

With less than a week to go to the start of the alpine world championships in the French town of Val d'Isere, Herbst showed that he is in fine form as he picked up his second season win.

Pranger wins men's slalom in Wengen

Wengen, Switzerland  - Austria's Manfred Pranger claimed victory in the men's slalom in Wengen Sunday while France's Jean- Baptiste Grange came home sixth to retain his lead in the discipline's World Cup standings.

Pranger registered a winning time of 1 minute 40.36 seconds for his two runs, finishing 34 hundredths ahead of compatriot Reinfried Herbst with Croatia's Ivica Kostelic third in 1:40.75 minutes.

France's Grange continues to lead the slalom standings with 349 points after five of 10 events, followed by Kostelic on 305 and Pranger on 219 points.

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