Palander claims controversial race
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) -- Kalle Palander of Finland won a controversial opening slalom race of the men's World Cup season on Sunday.
He edged out Rainer Schoenfelder by two hundredths of a second. but the Austrian was later disqualified.
That saw Austria's Manfred Pranger promoted to second with Giorgio Rocca of Italy snatching third.
World Cup slalom champion Palander produced a storming second run for a total time of one minute 35.91 seconds with Pranger clocking 1:36.60 and Rocca 1:37.01.
The second run was clouded by confusion after all but one of the teams lodged an appeal against Schoenfelder's reinstatement in the first leg, saying he had been given an unfair advantage.
Schoenfelder had nearly completed his opening run when he lost control on the treacherously steep hill and skied out.
He was granted a re-run by race officials after saying he was distracted by a course marshall laying injured on the snow close to the racing line.
The Austrian then made full use of his escape, matching Palander's fastest first leg time of 47.24 seconds.
American Tom Rothrock raised the hopes of the home fans by going quickest but after a rash of lead changes Palander, chasing his fifth World Cup career win, put all the distractions to one side to carve down a rutted course and dislodge Pranger.
The 26-year-old Palander then watched as Schoenfelder narrowly failed to knock him off the top of the podium.
But Schoenfelder's efforts were all in vain as the Austrian was later removed from the podium after race organisers upheld the appeal against his first run and disqualified him.
"It was a tough day emotionally because I was angry after the first run," Palander said. "I didn't think (Schoenfelder's) run was fair.
"I made a big mistake on the upper part," added Palander, "and I didn't feel so well this morning, so to win the race is fantastic."
Earlier, there was disappointment for the home fans when double world champion Bode Miller failed in his bid to win the first three races of the Alpine skiing season.
Miller, who won the giant slalom here on Saturday and the season opener in Soelden, Austria last month, clipped a gate to bring a premature end to a mistake-riddled first run.
