Kostelic limps off with super-combined win

SOCHIA, Russia, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Ivica Kostelic won the men's World Cup super combined in Russia Sunday, but suffered a knee injury in the process, Croatian team officials announced.

Kostelic, who leads the FIS World Cup overall points standings, experienced some pain in his right knee and was taken to a hospital for an MRI examination.

"I know this pain, I've often had it and most of the time it was the meniscus," Kostelic said as he limped away from the awards presentation at Sochi. "We won't be able to say anything of course until I've had it checked out in hospital,"

Fischer Sports said in a written statement that Kostelic has had trouble with the meniscus in the past and apparently suffered a flare-up during the slalom portion of Sunday's super combined.

Whatever the pain level was, it did not slow Kostelic down as he won handily over Beat Feuz of Switzerland in a two-run time of 2 minutes, 50.21 seconds. His slalom time of 48.07 overcame a relatively slow 2:02.14 in the opening downhill.

Feuz, who won Saturday's men's downhill at Sochi, turned in a combined 2:51.37. Blondin Thomas Mermillod of France was third. None of the three American competitors completed the downhill run.