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Back on Madonna's floodlit Canelone Miramonto slalom piste where
he first broke into the World Cup top 10 with a memorable 8th place
in 2000, Alain Baxter bounced back to form with a stunning 11th
place tonight in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup's second slalom of
the season.
World Cup points
After disappointingly failing to qualify last month in Park City
at the first slalom of the season, Baxter proved he can still take
on the world's best when he unleashed the sixth fastest second run
to make World Cup points for the first time this season, and score
his best result since his Olympic bronze medal run.
Too often recently, Baxter's has
had to wait on others to secure his destiny, and today he still
had an agonising wait to see if he would hold on to his Top 30 first
run placing. Despite four late runners pushing him down to lie 30th,
he clung on to enjoy a new World Cup experience: opening the second
run.
Even with a couple of mistakes he
stayed in the top three for a long time as more of the pursuing
pack made mistakes on Madonna di Campiglio's difficult steeps. With
former World Cup Slalom Champion, and current World Champion Ivica
Kostelic coming through to win, Baxter was delighted with his eleventh.
Summer training worth it
'Most of all I am pleased because it is a good, solid result with
nothing marginal about it. Lots of guys made mistakes and I held
together to make a result and that feels great.' Said a relieved
Baxter, 'It has been incredibly frustrating after Park City because
I have been training so well, and there has never been any question
about how I know I can ski. I have been up against a lot of the
best guys through the summer and in training and I have always been
holding my own or beating them, so to me this proves a lot. At least
I can go home and relax for Christmas and look forward to the next
World Cup in Flachau.'
'We lit a candle this morning and
said our prayers and it worked' quipped Baxter's long serving coach
Christian Schwaiger, 'but he skied well and got a result. There
were mistakes which means we know he can still do better, but it
has really not been easy for us at all over the last couple of weeks
since Park City.'
Baxter finished a very respectable
2.05 seconds behind overall winner Kostelic, a significant result
which should climb back inside the World Cup Top 30, which means
he his start number would be drawn at random within that group at
the next World Cups.
RESULTS - FIS Audi
Alpine World Cup
Men's Slalom, Madonna di Campiglio, ITA. 15/12/03
1 380260 KOSTELIC Ivica CRO 45.66 47.60 1:33.26 0.00
2 290478 ROCCA Giorgio ITA 45.41 48.16 1:33.57 1.89
3 50624 PRANGER Manfred AUT 44.78 48.90 1:33.68 2.57
4 50625 RAICH Benjamin AUT 45.37 48.46 1:33.83 3.48
5 292491 MOELGG Manfred ITA 46.32 47.78 1:34.10 5.13
6 50547 SCHOENFELDER Rainer AUT 45.27 48.84 1:34.11 5.20
11 220044 BAXTER Alain GBR 47.25 48.06 1:35.31 12.53
BAXTER Noel GBR DNQ1
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