Olympics: Teat pips Haywood in men's giant slalom battle

12.00 pm

Wanaka skier Jesse Teat and Aucklander Todd Haywood had their own private battle at the Winter Olympics today, finishing within one place of each other in the men's giant slalom.

Both were well off the pace on their Olympic debuts at Park City Mountain Resort, Utah, finishing more than 14 seconds behind the gold medallist Stephan Eberharter, of Austria.

However, they enjoyed their own rivalry, with Teat finishing 50th of the 78 starters, and Haywood 51st.

Haywood, 24 and the national slalom champion, pipped his team-mate on the first run, skiing the icy piste in one minute 19.99 seconds to finish 63rd.

Teat trailed him by .32sec to be 64th.

On the second run, Teat, 23, was swifter. His second run time of 1min 17.76sec pushed him ahead of Haywood by 0.3sec.

Teat's combined time was 2min 38.07sec to Haywood's 2min 38.10sec while Eberharter flew down the slope in 2min 23.28sec.

Teat, New Zealand's giant slalom champion, and Haywood had a difficult late build-up to the event after battling officialdom over whether they could start both technical skiing events this week.

Teat had qualified for the giant slalom, and Haywood the slalom, and at past games that meant the racers could ski both technical events.

That was confirmed by officials last month, but the International Ski Federation questioned their eligibility for both events this week.

New Zealand team chef de mission Geoff Balme was able to secure the men both starts after arguing any exclusion at such a late stage would be unfair and contrary to the rules.

The slalom is on Sunday (NZ time).

Eberharter, 32, already has a bronze and silver medal from the games, but the giant slalom was his last chance for an elusive career gold medal.

He led both runs and withstood the fast-charging United States skier Bode Miller, who improved from seventh after the first run to claim the silver medal.

Eberharter's career had nosedived in the mid-1990s, but he fought back to form to be the overall World Cup leader this season.

He had taken the silver medal at the Nagano Games four years ago in Japan behind compatriot Hermann Maier, who could not defend his title after a serious motorcycling crash last year.

- NZPA