. world ski news : Mancuso charges to first victory in four years in final DH - 16 March 2011 - 13:54
ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland – No matter that the light was totally flat, the snow was wet and slushy on a downhill course that was among the steepest and most technical all season or that she was the second to the last racer down at the end of the day, Julia Mancuso is one to rise to the occasion.
The American earned her first World Cup victory in more than four years at World Cup finals in Lenzerheide on Wednesday. Wearing bib No. 22 in a field of 23 athletes and after the soft snow had already taken one beating from the men’s downhill race earlier in the morning, Mancuso blazed down the Swiss course in 1 minute, 27.50 seconds, more than a second faster than every other woman besides Lara Gut, who took second place, 0.81 seconds behind Mancuso.
“I knew Lara skied really well and I knew I had to charge. I thought it was going to be tough going from 22 to win so I knew I had to out-ski everyone,” Mancuso said. “It was one thing about taking risks. I was really on the limit on the pitch. Coming down I was tucking in a lot of places, there were a couple bumps, but I just held with it and it paid off.”
World downhill and super G Champion Elisabeth Goergl rounded out the podium in Lenzerheide, finishing 1.15 seconds out. Although the Austrian was third behind Lindsey Vonn and Maria Riesch in the downhill standings before the race, with her victory, Julia Mancuso usurped her and took the third step of the podium in the season rankings.
“It’s awesome,” Mancuso said. “Finishing third in the downhill standings was a goal of mine. I’m stoked to be there, too. It’s a good sign for me to look for next year and try to build on those races that weren’t my best and gain confidence from those ones that were … like today. This is my best season for a while. My worst places were a couple bad ones in GS, but 16th was my worst downhill. So for me, that’s a great year. Even my best year, when I was second in the downhill standings, I had worse finishes. So it’s great to be consistent and it’s great to be in there.”
Vonn clinched the downhill globe after her results in Tarvisio and was fourth in the race on Wednesday (1.38 seconds back), for 650 total points in the downhill standings, followed by Riesch with 457 and Mancuso with 367. Because Riesch finished 17th on Wednesday and out of the points (only the top 15 get points at Finals), Vonn takes the lead in the overall standings for the first time in weeks with 1705 points over Riesch’s 1678.
“I’m only a couple points ahead, so I still feel like I’m the underdog,” Vonn said after the race. “I have to make some points tomorrow. We’ll see how I am going into the last technical races. Maria is dangerous in all events, so I have to be on my game in every race.”
Vonn had a big slip around a curve at the top of the course on Wednesday and dropped a good deal of speed but made a lot of it back at the bottom of the course.
“It was tough conditions out there, really soft snow and really flat light,” Vonn said. “It was really easy to make mistakes and unfortunately I made one on the top of the course and lost a lot of speed. I was really happy with my skiing on the bottom, because I had trouble in that section in both the training runs.”
Riesch also had a big mistake, going wide on the first right-footer, but failed to make up the time on the bottom of the course and finished 3.19 seconds off the pace.
“The top was OK, not perfect, but OK, but then same like in the training, I got really low and there was a funny bump and all the speed was gone and also my confidence,” Riesch said. “The whole steep was not very good and I lost lots of time there. But of course I have to look forward. It’s not over yet and I have to do it better tomorrow.”
Riesch, while disappointed in her performance Wednesday, said she was kind of relieved to no longer be carrying the weight of overall World Cup leader.
“Of course, I’m not happy with the race today and no points, but on the other side, I’m a little bit happy that I ‘m not in the lead anymore,” she said. “Maybe that’s a better position now. I try to do my best the next three days and we will see.”
The conditions threw punches at many racers. Andrea Fischbacher was among those to take the blows, sporting scrapes all over her neck from sliding out and into the fence right before the finish line. Although Fischbacher got up with no major injuries, Gut was the next racer on course and showed everyone that it was possible to get the upper hand.
“The slope is amazing. It’s so warm and for us girls starting after the men’s race, it’s a little soft. But it’s a nice course,” said Gut, saying that being stopped at the start house reminder her of the world champs super G, when she also had to wait at the top after a crash (again Fischbacher) right before her and ended up fourth in the race. “I had the start stop today and I had in my mind what happened in Garmisch, that I had no power after the start stop. I tried to be nervous so I that I could fight and that was all right today.”
Although the Lenzerheide course is a good bit shorter than most others on the downhill circuit, racers were out of breath at the bottom and said it was a battle the whole way down. Goergl, however, loved every second of it.
“It was a huge fight and I was really enjoying it, actually,” Goergl said. “It was fun and the snow was good to ski and I really liked it. I didn’t have a problem with the piste or the visibility.”
Norwegian racer Lotte Smiseth Sejersted, who won gold in the junior world championship downhill race this season and celebrated her 20th birthday earlier this month, notched what was by far the best result of her World Cup career to date, finishing fifth Wednesday, 1.59 seconds out. World super-combined Champion Anna Fenninger was sixth, 1.70 seconds out and Tina Maze, who led the field in both downhill trainings in Lenzerheide, ended up seventh, 2.03 seconds out. Anja Paerson was eighth, 2.14 seconds out, Stacey Cook ninth, 2.25 seconds out and Fabienne Suter 10th, 2.40 seconds out.
Ladies racing continues in Lenzerheide on Thursday with super G, again after the men’s race at 11:30 a.m. Although Vonn already secured the super G globe with 560 points, second and third are up for grabs as Riesch has 389, Mancuso 315 and Gut 272 going into the race.
by Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Wednesday 16 March 2011