KRANSJKA GORA, Slovenia, March 10 (UPI) -- Croatian veteran Ivica Kostelic won the men's slalom in Slovenia Sunday for his first World Cup won of the season.
Kostelic covered the bumpy course in a combined two-run time of 1 minute, 45.81 seconds, finishing ahead of Marcel Hirscher who clinched the season slalom title with a second place.
"It's a wonderful feeling as it's not easy to stay at a high level in any sport nowadays and slalom is a particularly tough discipline where competition is really dense," said Kostelic.
Alexis Pinturault of France led after the first run, but skied out in the second run, opening the door for Kostelic to move up from third place.
Austria's Mario Matt came in third and Ted Ligety was the top U.S. finisher in 18th place. Ligety heads into the World Cup Finals next week in third place in the overall point standings.
