Madonna di Campiglio, Italy Dec. 11, 2001 (AP by Jeff Israely)--Bode Miller of the United States won for the third straight day, capturing a slalom exhibition Tuesday following two World Cup victories.
The win does not count for the World Cup competition. Miller is first in the slalom standings and second in the overall World Cup standings.
He beat a field that included many top slalom skiers, finishing with a two-heat time of 1 minute, 20.98 seconds. The winner was determined by the best two times of four runs, including two rounds of head-to-head elimination.
``It was fun to race the same way we train,'' Miller said. ``It's been a long series of races, but I still felt like I could attack the course.''
Markus Ganahl of Liechtenstein was second in 1:22.26, followed by Ivica Kostelic of Croatia in 1:22.61.
The final five finishers, who advanced past the head-to-head races, were Sweden's Markus Larsson (1:23.14), Slovenia's Drago Grubelnik (1:23.21), Finland's Kalle Palander (1:23.32), Slovenia's Mitja Valencic (1:23.39) and Norway's Harald Strand Nilsen (1:23.44).
Among the 30 starters who did not qualify for the final two heats against the clock were Americans Erik Schlopy and Tom Rothrock and Italian Giorgio Rocca, who finished behind Miller in Monday's World Cup slalom.
Miller's win in that race was the first World Cup slalom victory for an American since Steve Mahre in 1983. On Sunday, Miller won the giant slalom in Val d'Isere, France. That ended an 18-year-old American drought in that discipline following Phil Mahre's 1983 victory.
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press
