Tina Maze sailed to victory in the giant slalom, the last individual race of the season, in Are, Sweden but it was runner-up Tanja Poutiainen who had more to celebrate after clinching the Crystal Globe in the speciality.

The Slovenian finished the day with a time of 2:26.41, blowing away all oppositions, and setting the best time by 1.12 seconds. The second win of the season for the 25-year-old, after her win on home snow in Maribor.

Poutiainen finished second, with a time of 2:27.53 after doing the hard work the first round, as she set only the ninth time in the final round.

With the overall World Cup having been decided in favour of Lindsey Vonn in the first race of the finals all that was left to be decided was the discipline rankings, with the Finn battling it out with Kathrin Zettel.

The 80 points earned by Poutiainen saw her conclude the season on 508 points, enough to lift the individual trophy by 13 points.

Zettel was runner-up with 495 points. The Austrian could have claimed the crystal-ware if she had finished in the top seven, but only managed an eighth place finish.  Race winner Maze finished the season third in the specialty, and sixth overall, thanks to the win in the final.

Manuela Moelgg climbed on to the podium with a time of 2:28, finishing the event on the bottom step of the podium. The Italian finished with a time of 2:27.80.

The final individual race of the World Cup season was undertaken on a relatively warm and very sunny afternoon, a perfect day to end the season on.

Taina Barioz recorded her career best with a fourth place finish, and a time of 2:28.20.

Fabienne Suter finished the race in fifth spot, with a time of 2:28.20.

Denise Karbon completed the day in sixth spot, with a time of 2:28.35.

Elisabeth Goergl finished seventh with a time of 2:28.51. The Austrian had finished the first run 12th, but improved her position by five places in the afternoon.

The best time of the second round was set by Junior World Champion Viktoria Rebensburg, who finished her second run in 1:12.64, 3/100 faster than race winner Maze. However the young German was left ruining her poor run in the first round, ending the day in 12th spot with a time of 2:28.89, 2.48 seconds behind the leader.

The last race of the finals in Are is the Team Event which starts at 09:00(CET) on Sunday.

Saturday, 14 March 2009 12:29
fisalpineworldcup.com

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