Kostelic bags world cup title and an injury

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia speeds down in the downhill portion of the men's Alpine Skiing World Cup Super Combined event in Rosa Khutor near Sochi, Feb 12, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

* Kostelic wins super-combined World Cup

SOCHI, Russia - Ivica Kostelic scored one of the most frustrating victories of his Alpine skiing career when he won the Sochi super-combined and the specialty's World Cup but injured his knee in the process on Sunday.

Kostelic's father Ante blamed the injury on the icy Russian course and the many jumps on the Rosa Khutor downhill piste, which will be used for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Defending overall World Cup champion Ivica, whose career has been marred by several knee and back operations, was taken to a local hospital for tests before being flown home in a private jet for treatment.

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia uses a stick to climb up the podium after winning the men's Alpine Skiing World Cup Super Combined event in Rosa Khutor near Sochi, Feb 12, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Despite the problem, Kostelic was a solid 15th after the morning downhill section and destroyed the opposition in the afternoon slalom to win in a combined time of two minutes 50.21 seconds.

It was Kostelic's fifth World Cup of his career and his second in succession in the super-combined.

He also increased his lead in the race for this season's overall title to 70 points over Swiss Beat Feuz.

Feuz, the winner of Saturday's downhill on the Olympic piste, was second in Sunday's race, 1.16 seconds behind Kostelic. Third place went to France's Thomas Mermillod-Blond, 1.77 off the pace.

Feuz sympathized with Kostelic, saying: "I sincerely hope his injury is not too bad. It would be a great shame for our fight to end in these circumstances.

"In any case, there was no beating him today; he skied an extraordinary slalom run."

With more speed events than technical races left in the season, Feuz had already looked to be at an advantage over Kostelic in the fight for the overall cup, even before the Croatian's injury.

American Bode Miller pulled out of the slalom run after only a few gates, suffering from the ankle pains which have troubled him for a couple of seasons.

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia reacts in pain during the podium ceremony for the men's Alpine Skiing World Cup Super Combined event in Rosa Khutor near Sochi, Feb 12, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]