. world ski news : World cup 2007 - 25 March 2007 - 11:49
Finals
Svindal finishes in the points to win overall title
LENZERHEIDE ( 18/03/2007 12:24 ) (AP) - Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway won the men's World Cup overall title on Sunday after making sure he finished in the points in the last race of the season.
Defending overall champion Benjamin Raich of Austria, who led after the opening run of the slalom, needed to win the race and hope that Svindal failed to score any points.
Svindal crossed fifth in the second leg with 11 skiers still to race after him. The Norwegian took the overall title when Sweden's Markus Larsson, the next skier on the course, finished slower than him _ assuring Svindal a place in the top 15.
Raich won the race, which also earned him the World Cup slalom crystal globe.
"Congratulations to Aksel," Raich said. "He had some great skiing this season." Raich won with a combined time of 1 minute, 39.78 seconds, followed by teammate Mario Matt in 1:40.75. Italy's Manfred Moelgg was third in 1:41.52.
Just 24 hours ago, Raich looked almost certain to win the overall title. But the Austrian surrendered the overall lead to Svindal after swerving off course in Saturday's giant slalom.
Svindal has been unbeatable at this week's World Cup finals, winning the downhill, super-G and giant slalom races within four days. In winning the GS, he also snatched Raich's World Cup discipline crown.
Hosp wins giant slalom to take World Cup overall title
LENZERHEIDE ( 18/03/2007 13:48 ) (AP) - Nicole Hosp of Austria clinched the World Cup overall title on Sunday after winning the women's giant slalom at the season finale.
Teammate Marlies Schild, who surrendered the overall lead after a disastrous performance in Saturday's slalom, needed to make up 30 points on Hosp to win the most covered World Cup crystal globe.
But Schild finished only 10th in the opening leg while Hosp took the lead. Schild could only have won after that if she finished eighth in the second leg and Hosp went out or finished out of the points.
Only the top 15 finishers score at the final, instead of the usual top-30 in regular season races. A 15th-place finish is worth 16 points.
It marked the first time in five years that an Austrian woman has won the overall title. The last four were evenly shared by Sweden's Anja Paerson and Croatia's Janica Kostelic, who won last year's edition and sat out this season for health reasons.
"I gained valuable points in the slalom yesterday when Marlies went out," Hosp said. "And I'm strong in the GS and I know it. A lot of things were going through my head but I worked hard to concentrate on just skiing well." With the victory, Hosp also claimed the giant slalom World Cup globe.
The last time Austria's women accomplished the feat was in the 1998-99 season, but there were only five titles then, since none was awarded for the combined. In all, the Austrian women won 23 races this season and produced 54 podium results.
Hosp, the giant slalom world champion, charged down the Silvano Beltrametti course in a combined time of 2 minutes, 11.98 seconds, 1.42 faster than runner-up Kathrin Hoelzl of Germany. Austria's Michaela Kirchgasser placed third in 2:13.51.
Schild had seemed the favorite for the overall title after doing well earlier this week in the speed events, her weakest disciplines. And after winning seven slaloms this season, Schild had been expected to score a large number of points in Saturday's slalom but twice veered off course and hiked back uphill to re-run the gates to finish out of the points. Hosp won the race to grab 100 points and take the overall lead.
Freakish World Cup season ends in suspense
LENZERHEIDE, ( 19/03/2007 09:51 ) Switzerland (AP) _ This winter's warm weather led to some bizarre results on the World Cup circuit.
Aksel Lund Svindal and Nicole Hosp handled the often surreal situations by remaining cool and consistent, and each was rewarded with an overall World Cup title.
"It's important you don't let yourself be down, or be disturbed. Not to think too much about things," said Svindal, who won the men's title Sunday by beating defending champion Benjamin Raich by 13 points. "I stayed realistic. I stayed consistent. And now I've won the biggest thing there is in Alpine skiing." With the spring-like temperatures early this season, there was more mud than snow at many ski resorts across Europe.
Race courses were flanked by brown grass and organizers desperately tried to carpet the slopes with man-made snow.
The generally soft conditions led to more than a few strange finishes. At Wengen, Switzerland, organizers scrapped a men's super-combi after the famous Lauberhorn downhill course was damaged by rain. Kitzbuehel, Austria, transported in about 4,000 cubic meters (141,250 cubic feet) of snow by helicopter from higher-lying regions. It cost several hundred thousand euros (dollars) and despite their efforts, they were forced to scrap the notorious Hahnenkamm downhill and staged only a pair of slaloms.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, another classic stop on the circuit, also had to ship in snow.
"The coaches say 'Wengen is canceled. It's Chamonix instead.' A lot of races were canceled or moved. But you just have to accept it," Svindal said. "You do the race.
It doesn't matter where it is. You get up in the morning for inspection." The world championships in Are, Sweden, were one of the few exceptions, with plenty of snow and cold temperatures, sometimes dipping as low as minus 27 degrees Celsius (minus 17 F).
The races produced some unexpected results with Patrick Staudacher of Italy winning the super-G, Daniel Albrecht of Switzerland taking the combined, and Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic clinching the women's slalom.
Svindal won the downhill and giant slalom, while Paerson swept the super-G, combined and downhill titles. It was odd without defending overall champion Janica Kostelic, who had always set some kind of record at major international events. The Croat, who sat out the season because of health issues, became the most successful female skier in Olympic history when she won gold and silver at last year's Turin Games. She earned victories in all five Alpine disciplines last season.
Paerson focused on the world championships on home snow and won three gold medals, but remained winless on the World Cup until the final super-G.
Hermann Maier had his worst World Cup season ever, with just one podium result.
"This is my first season that wasn't so good. That means a lot," said Maier, who has suggested he'll be back next season. "It's been 10 years in the World Cup. Eight seasons," added Maier, who was sidelined for 18 months after a motorcycle accident in 2001 nearly cost him a leg. "You get a bit slower if you don't have the fire. That will be very important for me to get this back." It might not have been a stellar season for the veterans, but it was a great one for the circuit's new generation.
The men's side saw skiers from 12 different nations win races, and the Swiss team enjoyed a spectacular renaissance. Didier Cuche and Marc Berthod gave a pair of victories to the Swiss men's team, which also posted 11 other podium results. The women had two top-three performances.
Berthod's slalom victory at Adelboden, Switzerland, ended a three-year winless streak for Switzerland's men, one that stretched to seven years in the discipline.
Once an Alpine skiing superpower, Switzerland has struggled while Austria took over the last 14 years. Repeated changes in the coaching staff, poor development teams and bad equipment choices all lead to Switzerland's decline. Cuche even had a shot at the overall World Cup title until the final races, but left with the downhill globe anyway. Both overall titles came down to the wire in the final run on the final day.
"That's the idea of the final," International ski Federation president Gian Franco Kasper said.
Raich looked sure to reclaim the overall title, but surrendered the lead to Svindal a day before the season's finale after swerving off course in the giant slalom.
In a similar scenario on the women's side, Schild surrendered the overall lead after a disastrous slalom performance on the penultimate day. She needed to make up 30 points on Hosp in the final GS but Hosp clinched the title after winning the race.
Austria's women won all six World Cup titles. Hosp won the overall and GS, Schild took the slalom and combined, and speed specialist Renate Goetschl won the downhill and super-G titles.
The last time Austria's women accomplished the feat was in the 1998-99 season, but there were only five titles then, since none was awarded for the combined. In all, the Austrian women won 23 races this season and produced 54 podium results. Austria once again easily won the Nation's Cup with 14,735 points. Switzerland finished second with 5,861 points, while the United States was third with 5,297.
OVERAL STANDING ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP 2006/2007
MEN
ALL DH SL GS SG KB
Name Nation rank pts rank pts rank pts rank pts rank pts rank pts
SVINDAL Aksel Lund NOR 1 1268 7 321 21 118 1 416 5 181 1 232
RAICH Benjamin AUT 2 1255 32 59 1 605 3 319 13 106 5 166
CUCHE Didier SUI 3 1098 1 652 7 223 2 208 34 15
MILLER Bode USA 4 882 8 318 55 8 6 232 1 304 28 20
MATT Mario AUT 5 744 2 600 25 42 11 102
FILL Peter ITA 6 694 4 382 25 42 9 143 7 127
BUECHEL Marco LIE 7 635 2 471 35 18 8 146
BERTHOD Marc SUI 8 591 6 322 22 52 36 15 2 202
SCHEIBER Mario AUT 9 584 9 254 24 44 4 190 14 96
PALANDER Kalle FIN 10 546 9 247 4 299
LIGETY Ted USA 11 534 35 50 15 170 8 212 11 102
GUAY Erik CAN 12 529 3 393 10 136
ZURBRIGGEN Silvan SUI 13 523 26 104 14 171 18 79 4 169
DEFAGO Didier SUI 14 515 21 158 9 163 14 100 15 94
BYGGMARK Jens SWE 15 506 3 490 33 16
WALCHHOFER Michael AUT 16 498 5 370 33 22 21 75 26 31
GRUBER Christoph AUT 17 479 11 242 19 71 7 153 36 13
MOELGG Manfred ITA 18 453 5 334 10 119
MAIER Hermann AUT 19 452 18 189 16 86 6 177
BLARDONE Massimiliano ITA 20 390 2 380 44 7 49 3
BOURQUE Francois CAN 21 379 48 15 5 249 22 74 23 41
LARSSON Markus SWE 22 376 4 340 32 25 39 11
KUCERA John CAN 23 370 38 47 15 87 3 194 22 42
JERMAN Andrej SLO 24 366 6 339 33 18 44 9
KOSTELIC Ivica CRO 25 344 16 144 3 200
NYMAN Steven USA 26 340 10 250 25 47 21 43
ALBRECHT Daniel SUI 27 334 30 80 22 104 20 67 31 22 18 61
STROBL Fritz AUT 28 314 15 220 15 94
GRANGE Jean-Baptiste FRA 29 309 10 242 17 67
GRUGGER Hans AUT 30 306 19 182 12 124
WOMEN
ALL DH SL GS SG KB
Name Nation rank pts rank pts rank pts rank pts rank pts rank pts
HOSP Nicole AUT 1 1572 20 122 2 418 1 490 2 352 3 190
SCHILD Marlies AUT 2 1482 12 199 1 760 12 168 14 135 1 220
MANCUSO Julia USA 3 1356 2 536 24 77 4 275 4 273 2 195
GOETSCHL Renate AUT 4 1300 1 705 26 55 1 540
PAERSON Anja SWE 5 885 4 293 12 188 13 152 6 202 14 50
KILDOW Lindsey C USA 6 808 3 390 37 28 3 310 7 80
POUTIAINEN Tanja FIN 7 783 6 332 2 419 22 32
KIRCHGASSER Michaela AUT 8 657 13 148 3 357 4 152
ZAHROBSKA Sarka CZE 9 593 3 405 20 80 45 11 6 97
JACQUEMOD Ingrid FRA 10 584 5 264 17 119 16 124 9 77
GOERGL Elisabeth AUT 11 568 14 184 35 39 11 171 23 96 8 78
ZETTEL Kathrin AUT 11 568 8 257 7 206 31 45 11 60
FISCHBACHER Andrea AUT 13 488 11 205 39 26 18 86 8 158 35 13
RIESCH Maria GER 14 487 7 225 25 72 22 60 18 118 36 12
OTTOSSON Anna SWE 15 453 9 215 6 208 51 4 24 26
BRYDON Emily CAN 16 414 13 189 46 9 11 140 10 76
MEISSNITZER Alexandra AUT 17 413 15 181 34 25 5 207
BORSSEN Therese SWE 18 407 4 389 37 18
ZUZULOVA Veronika SVK 19 383 5 344 32 28 37 11
VANDERBEEK Kelly CAN 20 367 8 218 9 149
STYGER Nadia SUI 21 339 6 229 19 110
JELUSIC Ana CRO 22 331 7 328 54 3
MOELGG Manuela ITA 23 314 19 114 8 200
AUFDENBLATTEN Fraenzi SUI 24 312 17 164 43 11 13 137
STIEGLER Resi USA 25 300 51 3 17 141 31 37 5 119
PIETILAE-HOLMNER Maria SWE 26 292 15 144 14 148
MARCHAND-ARVIER Marie FRA 27 288 9 215 35 33 17 40
JANYK Britt CAN 28 271 26 86 7 167 31 18
HOELZL Kathrin GER 29 270 34 40 5 228 47 2
MAZE Tina SLO 30 268 51 7 19 81 10 143 19 37