Palander is king of the Hahnenkaam
KITZBUEHEL, Austria (Reuters) -- Finn Kalle Palander showed his love of the classic Hahnenkamm race by winning the slalom for the second year in a row on Sunday for his fourth win of the season.
Second after the first leg, Palander recorded a combined time of one minute 30.63 seconds to beat first leg leader Thomas Grandi of Canada by just 0.08 seconds.
It's like a dream coming true," a jubilant Palander said after clinching his eighth career World Cup win.
He also became the first slalom racer to earn back-to-back wins on the famed slopes in Austria since Luxembourg's Marc Girardelli in 1985.
"In Chamonix I was 16th, in Wengen I was out and now I've won the most important one of them all -- it's just great," he added.
Grandi, who had never before gone into a second leg as leader, celebrated his first podium finish in a slalom as though it were a win as he became the first Canadian man to reach the top three in a technical discipline.
"I had a good start but then had a couple of small slips on the top section. I'm just incredibly excited to have done so well," Grandi said after capturing only his second podium finish following a third place in a giant slalom at Park City in 1998.
Austria's Rainer Schoenfelder, the winner here two years ago, gave the home crowd cause to cheer by sweeping into third place in a time of 1:31.69.
Miller triumph
American all-rounder Bode Miller won the combined event, where timings from Thursday's downhill were added to the slalom, after pulling off two clean runs to come fourth in the slalom, 1.18 seconds behind Palander.
"It's really difficult when you're going for the combined, you can't attack so much. But my second run was pretty strong and I really went for it," the 26-year-old Miller said.
"It's just the best for me to win the Hahnenkamm combined and I'm really going to fight for it again on Tuesday," the New Hampshire racer added in reference to the classic night slalom in Schladming.
Miller's strong showing in the four races at Kitzbuehel put him back in contention to become the first American since Phil Mahre in 1983 to win the overall crown. Miller is now in fourth place, 123 points behind leader Lasse Kjus of Norway.
Kjus, who injured his knee in Saturday's downhill, came third in the combined behind Benjamin Raich of Austria. Raich is now just six points behind the veteran all-rounder in the overall standings.
Italian Giorgio Rocca, who began the day as slalom World Cup leader, finished a disappointing 13th in the slalom, 1.84 seconds behind Palander.
Palander, a former world champion in Alpine skiing's shortest discipline, said victory in Kitzbuehel was especially sweet as it was here last year that he exploded on to the World Cup.
He wrote personal and national history by becoming his country's first winner, male or female, of a World Cup race after previously never having even made the podium.
Palander went on to become the measure of all things by picking up another three wins to capture the World Cup crown in the technical discipline.
"I was very nervous before the start because I really wanted to win. It was so important for me to win because this is where it all started for me," he said.
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