Kostelic clean en route to men's slalom victory

Defending overall champion Ivica Kostelic used two error-free runs in heavy snowfall to win a night slalom Wednesday for his 20th career World Cup victory.

The Croat led after the first run and finished in an aggregate time of one minute 48.94 seconds to beat second-place Andre Myhrer of Sweden by 0.07 seconds. Cristian Deville of Italy was another 0.02 behind in third.

"Two days ago [after the slalom] in Alta Badia I was very disappointed to miss second place by just 0.17," Kostelic said from Flachau, Austria. "But the wheel of fortune always keeps turning and today I was the lucky one. But I must also say that I had two good runs."

Kostelic led Deville by 0.14 seconds and Myhrer by 0.35 going into the final run but lost time as the course was made more difficult by the increasing amount of ruts in the snow.

"I did not know the times of the others when I started, I just focused on my own run," said Kostelic, who beat Deville for his first win of the season in Beaver Creek, Colo., earlier this month.

Marcel Hirscher of Austria failed to finish his second run after straddling a gate but remained in the lead of the overall standings with 425 points. Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal is second with 416 followed by American Ted Ligety with 385.

Hirscher came a disappointing 13th in the opening run.

"I can't explain this. For me, my run was good so I was surprised to see my time," Hirscher said.

Ligety out early

Ligety, who came 10th in Alta Badia, Italy, two days ago, failed to qualify for the second run. The world GS champion made a mistake at the third gate and again lost speed at the bottom section to finish 2.55 seconds off the lead.

World champion Jean-Baptiste Grange of France struggled in both runs and was 1.08 behind in seventh, and Olympic champion Giuliano Razzoli of Italy skied out after a few gates in his first run.

Former World Cup skier Matthias Lanzinger, who had his left lower leg amputated after crashing in a super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway, three years ago, was one of the forerunners. The 31-year-old Austrian returned to competitive skiing at the Europa Cup circuit for disabled athletes last month.

The race replaced the slalom that was cancelled in Levi, Finland, in November and it was the first men's World Cup event since 2004 in Flachau, the hometown of retired great Hermann Maier.

The men's World Cup will continue with the classic downhill on the Stelvio course in Bormio, Italy, on Dec. 29.