Svindal wins world men's super-combined

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal defended his gold medal in the men's super-combined by a wide margin Monday at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Germany.

The veteran completed the downhill and slalom runs in a combined time of 2 minutes, 54,51 seconds, more than 1 second faster than Christoff Innerhofer of Italy, who turned in a 2:55.52 for his third medal of the championships, and fellow Italian Peter Fill.

Svindal won the downhill leg and Austria's Benjamin Raich was fastest in the slalom. Raich placed fourth overall.

Tim Jitloff was the top American finisher with a 3:00.29. Neither Ted Ligety nor Bode Miller finished the slalom races after being tripped up by gates.

"Bode didn't have the best downhill run," said U.S. Coach Sasha Rearick. "He was cutting off the line too much and going too straight forward for what the conditions could allow. And in the slalom, unfortunately, he skied out."

Croatian star Ivicia Kostelic, who has dominated the super-combined on the World Cup tour this season, skipped Monday's championships to focus on the remaining schedule for the year.