Raich heads one-two-three

Raich, quickest after the first run, held his nerve to record a combined time of 1.43.14 seconds, 0.83 ahead of silver medallist Herbst, and 1.01 seconds clear of Schoenfelder, who took the bronze.

"The feeling is incredible," said Raich, who last season won the slalom gold at the world championships and the World Cup titles in both technical disciplines.

"Everybody was expecting a lot from me but I had nothing to lose because I already had a gold medal," Raich told reporters.

Sweden's Andre Myhrer and Japan's Kentaro Minagawa - who finished joint fourth - missed out on the podium by a mere 0.03 seconds after both runs.

After setting the second best time in the first run, Finland's Kalle Palander looked to be on his way to becoming only the second Finn to take an Olympic Alpine skiing medal - after Tanja Poutiainen sunk the silver in Friday's giant slalom.

But television replays showed the 28-year-old to have sensationally straddled a gate and he was duly disqualified. An irate Palander swung his pole down angrily in the snow on witnessing the evidence in the finish area.

Pre-race favourites Giorgio Rocca, Bode Miller and Ted Ligety were all disqualified during the first run, while Frenchman Jean-Pierre Vidal failed to defend his title after breaking his arm in training on Friday.

With his giant slalom victory secured on Wednesday, by taking the slalom Raich is only the second man to have won both technical events at the same Games since Italian legend Alberto Tomba in the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

"La Bomba" was there to congratulate his successor before he mounted the podium alongside team-mates Herbst and Schoenfelder. It was only the third time in Olympic history that one nation had notched a clean-sweep in a men's Alpine race.

Austria took all three medals in the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo giant slalom and Norway hogged the combined podium at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer.

"We could not count on this kind of situation, even though we've been damn fast this season, but for it to go like this - one, two, three - right at the end, that's a dream," Austrian coach Toni Giger told Austrian television.

Raich's win was especially impressive given his disappointment in the second slalom run of the combined event when, leader, the Austrian missed an innocuous gate and waved goodbye to any chances of improving on his 2002 Salt Lake City bronze.

It took quite a few seconds, however, for Benni Raich to realise what had happened after crossing the line to take first place. The 27-year-old looked concerned as he turned to look at the digital leader board, and even after he was mobbed by his medal-winning team-mates, the look of incredulity was apparent across his face.

But disbelief soon turned into joy as the double gold medallist was hoisted into the air by the duo to the raucous cries of the Austrian supporters.

For Herbst, a silver medal is a superb return for the racer who was omitted from the Austrian team in 2005 due to his 'bad-boy' image.

"In the second run I thought 'now you have to give everything you've got because staying fourth is worth nothing', he told reporters.

"I've never slept as well as last night," he added. "Usually a lot of things go through my head but last night I slept so well."

As for Schoenfelder, the 28-year-old secured his second bronze of the Games - following his success in the combined event - after a low seventh-place finish in the first slalom run fired him up on the return leg.

"That's me, I have to cross the valley of being pissed off and then reach the mountain of calm," said the long-haired Schoenfelder, who has a secondary career as a pop singer.