Mar.18. Lenzerheide

 

 

Mar.16. LENZERHEIDE

LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland (March 16) – Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) topped the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup Finals downhill podium Wednesday in Lenzerheide for her first World Cup downhill victory in four seasons. Teammate Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) was fourth to regain the World Cup overall lead from Germany’s Maria Riesch for the first time since Dec. 27 as Riesch finished outside the points in 17th.

The victory hoisted Mancuso to third in the final downhill standings and to fifth in the overall chase with just three races remaining. Mancuso and other members of the World Cup field have pledged to donate 50 percent of their winnings this week to the Japanese earthquake relief effort.

“I knew I had to push really hard because I wanted to win. Opportunities like this don’t come around all the time and I took advantage of it,” said Mancuso. “I’ve been working through injuries and working hard for the past four years. I’m finally back on the top of the downhill podium and it feels great. The switch to Voelkl skis has been amazing. It just gives me a lot of confidence that next year is going to be even better.”

 

Adrien Theaux great! The French won the downhill finals in Lenzerheide, Wednesday. Party under the sun, the Pyrenees 26 years won the first victory of his career. For a small hundredth. Fourth, the Swiss Didier Cuche clinched the world of specialty. That was four years the team of France has not seen this: the joy ride on the top step of a podium in World Cup downhill. In Switzerland, Adrien Theaux ended this long wait by winning the finals in Lenzerheide. The French took over from Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin, who won the downhill in Val d’Isere 20 January 2007 and last Habs such a feast. The Pyrenees 26 years has benefited mainly to

afford their first victory of his career. For a small one hundredth … The race number 8 on the back, and left under sunny conditions ideal Theaux did what he needed on the snow Helvetian. Silvano Beltrametti on a track where the relief is scarce and where to go the shortest route, the French signed a time of 1′22 “94. Either one hundredth less than the Austrian Joachim Puchner, who had a slender earlier. Third, at 0 “16, Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal looked up after a weekend of devastating Kvitfjell. “This is my second downhill podium (3rd in Kitzbuehel in January). It was not easy today (Wednesday), although visibility was somewhat better for me,” said the micro Theaux FIS . A few minutes after the passage of the French, the time has effectively covered. The sun has given way to light white. “But it’s part of the game,” he added, legitimately, the winner. The change in visibility, however, did not disrupt the battle for the world of specialty. Three men were still vying for the precious crystal. Penultimate rider to leave the starting hut, and fourth down, Didier Cuche, interrogative and deeply moved, took what he was looking for: a fourth reward after they gathered in 2007, 2008 and 2010. For the last race of her career and 12 small points (510 against 498), Austrian Michael Walchhofer (11th) had to bow. There were three other shortlisted French: Yannick Bertrand took a nice 8th place, before Johan Clarey (12e). Guillermo Fayed could not reach the finish. Since the weekend Kvitfjell, Croatian Ivica Kostelic is assured of winning the overall at the World Cup. The men’s finals in Lenzerheide continues Thursday with the Super-G (9.30).

 

Mar.12. Kvitfjell NOR Downhill men

Austria's Michael Walchhofer claimed his 19th World Cup victory on Saturday when he won the men's downhill here to take command of the discipline standings.

In a race that also crowned Croatia's Ivica Kostelic as the 2011 overall World Cup champion, Walchhofer clocked a winning time of 1min 45.92sec to finish 0.13sec ahead of compatriot Klaus Kroll.

Up and coming Swiss Beat Feuz, who won the first of two scheduled downhills here on Friday, completed the podium after finishing 0.31 back in third.

Walchhofer's fourth win of the season, his third in downhill, means he takes control of the standings in the blue riband event from Swiss Didier Cuche ahead of the finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland next weekend.

Cuche could only finish seventh on Saturday. As well as losing the downhill lead to Walchhofer, his setback handed Kostelic an unassailable lead in the overall World Cup standings.

The 31-year-old Croatian all-rounder now has over a 500-point lead on downhill specialist Cuche with five races remaining. A victory in the World Cup is worth 100 points.

Sister Janica Kostelic won the prestigious Crystal Globe three times (2001/2003/2006) during her illustrious career.

Kostelic is also still in contention for the World Cup titles in super-G and slalom. The World Cup season wraps up next week with five races at the finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

 

 

 

Mar.12. Spindleruv Mlyn Slalom Ladies

1.Schild Marlies AUT 2.Kathrin Zettel AUT 3:Tina Maze SLO

Austrian Marlies Schild claimed the slalom World Cup crown after victory in Spindleruv Mlyn, as Lindsey Vonn closed to within 23 points of Maria Riesch's lead in the overall standings.

World champion Schild won in a combined time of one minute and 43.85 seconds, 0.93 seconds ahead of her compatriot Kathrin Zettel and 1.16 seconds in front of Tina Maze of Slovenia.

Schild now has an unassailable 111-point lead over Finland's Tania Poutiainen, who only managed ninth place, heading into the last slalom of the season next week in Switzerland.

With four races to go before the end of the season, American Vonn cut further into Riesch's lead in the race for the overall title by taking 16th place as Riesch failed to score any points.

The German straddled a gate in the early seconds of the second run and was eliminated.

 

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (Reuters) - Ten days after undergoing minor heart surgery, Swiss Carlo Janka won

an Alpine ski World Cup giant slalom race on Saturday.

Olympic champion Janka, who revealed at last month's world championships that a viral infection had caused problems with his heart rate, pipped French teenager Alexis Pinturault by 0.02 seconds.

American world champion Ted Ligety, the winner in Kranjska Gora for the last three years, was third, 0.12 behind Janka.

The American still leads the discipline standings with one race to go, ahead of Aksel Lund Svindal who finished only 22nd after struggling on the treacherous course.

Janka, 24, had originally been due to undergo surgery at the end of the season but the operation was brought forward to February 23 after medical checks showed a sudden change in his heart rate, the Swiss ski federation said last month.

"It is really a beautiful way to return," Janka said after his first win of the season. "The surgery had been scheduled at the end of the season so it was not easy for me; it was not easy to live with that. This victory is special, especially because it was unexpected."

The 19-year-old Pinturault was 16th after the first leg but produced a superb second run to reach the first World Cup podium of his career.

"To finish 0.02 off Janka, and sandwiched between him and Ligety...it's really something," the junior world champion said.

Ligety now has 383 points at the top of the giant slalom standings, with Svindal on 306 and France's Cyprien Richard, who was fourth in Saturday's race, on 303.

"It was an important race for me after my (gold) medal at the world championships last month, but I did not have a good feeling on that course. Now, anything can happen in the last race," Ligety said.

Austria's Philipp Schoerghofer, who led after the opening run, did not finish the race after he missed a gate near the top of the second leg.

Overall World Cup leader Ivica Kostelic of Croatia was 18th.

Kranjska Gora also hosts a slalom on Sunday.

 

Feb.27. Bansko Slalom

 

Mario Matt is all the way back.

At a World Cup slalom in Bansko, Bulgaria, Sunday (Feb. 27) Austrian Mario Matt registered his first trip to the top step of a World Cup podium since 2009. Not bad for a guy kicked off the team for poor performance.

A couple of injuries gave the 31 year old two-time World slalom champion (2001 and 2007) another shot at Cup action in time to catch the end of the January string of slalom races, picking off top 10 finishes at Adelboden, Wengen and Kitzbuehel. At World Championships he was fourth. In Bulgaria he won his 13th World Cup race.

Matt led after the first run and maintained composure to post the win over teammate Reinfried Herbst by .04 seconds. Freshly crowned World Slalom Champion Jean-Baptiste Grange was third, gaining ground on Cup slalom leader Ivica Kostelic, a first run casualty. With two slaloms remaining, at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia March 6 and at Finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland March 19, Grange trails Kostelic by 36pts.

Matt told Austrian reporters he enjoyed a "huge sigh of relief," and said, "The time was ripe." He said in his most recent outings he had registered good second runs, but had lagged too far back after the first run.

"I knew that if I had a clever first the victory is possible."

He started the season outside of the top 30 seeded skiers. "I really wanted to save my season," he said.

Canadian Michael Janyk was fifth marking the ninth time in his career he has placed fifth or better in a Cup slalom. He is just the third Canadian to score that many top fives in slalom. "I'm really, really happy with my skiing and my approach to the day," said Janyk. "The result is good and bad. It's awesome to be top five and so frustrating to be just off the podium.

"It's so clear in my mind what I need to do. I know I can be on top of the podium."

Like Matt, Nolan Kasper was also enjoying being among the top 30 starters, a new experience for him on World Cup. He responded with a a career best tenth place result.

Kasper said it was just a good day. "It was sunny and the snow was a lot
better than I thought it would be. I had a better start than I've had
in the past because I was in the top 30 today. It was a pretty easy hill
and course so you really had to be gunning from the get go. I just tried
to make a little mistakes as possible and go fast."

Ted Ligety finished 17th, his third best slalom finish of the season.-hm

Feb.20.2011.

1.Jean Baptiste Grange FRA 2.Jens Biggmark FRA 3.Manfred Moelgg ITA

Jean Baptiste Grange wins Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2011 Slalom

Grange wins first French World slalom title in 26 years

Though the hard-working race crew on the Gudiberg race hill across the tracks in Partenkirchen, Germany were reduced to using a fire hose and hand thrown salt, they got the hill to hold together for the final race of the 2011 World Ski Championships, the men's slalom. The result were some historic finishes.

It was no accident the two guys wearing bibs one and two wound up on the podium. Weeks of temperatures at or above freezing combined with the efforts of the work crew had created a solid, grippy surface. But the ravages applied by the strength of the World Cup men was no easy thing to withstand.

Second starting Jean-Baptiste Grange claimed the slalom World Championship his second World medal having won bronze in 2007. It was the first French win in a World Championship slalom since Perrine Pelen in 1985, and the first for a Frenchman since Jean-Noel Augert in 1970.

First starting Manfred Moelgg of Italy, the silver medalist ahead of Grange in 2007, got bronze this time.  It was the sixth medal of the championships for Italy, matching the national record haul from 1997 when the title meet was on their own snow.

Winning silver for Sweden was Jens Byggmark in his first World Championship meet placing ever.
It was the first world slalom medal for a Swedish male since Jonas Nilsson won gold in 1985.

Of the podium results Byggmarks was the more remarkable. He had finished sixth in the first run more than a second off Grange's winning first run time and started the second run 25th when the course was as rutted and slick as it would get. The hose had been put away by the time he ran, but the course definitely offered its challenges.

Mario Matt finished fourth, adding to the frustration of the Austrians who have seen their heroes drop to injury and their medals limited - on the men's side - to a silver in super G to Hannes Reichelt (later to be injured) and a bronze in GS by Philipp Schoerghofer. That he made it to the race at all is astonishing having worked his way up through the World Cup ranks over the season to qualify. He was a distant 1.18 seconds out after the first run and skied 15th in the second heat with a run that was truely special and remained the fastest run of the afternoon.

Finishing in fifth was the Canadian fireplug Julien Cousineau matching the 1950 slalom finish of Ernie McCullough and two off the 2009 podium result of Michael Janyk, a first run casualty carrying a lead at the time he skied out. Sixth went to a Japanese, the best slalom finish for the island nation since Chiharu Igaya earned a bronze in 1958.

American Nolan Kasper led the way for his squad, powering through the ruts of the first course from the 29th start and skiing 14th in the second run. Ted Ligety finished 19th. skiracing.com

 

Feb.18.2011.GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN Giant Slalom Men

1.Ted Ligety USA 2.Richard Cyprien FRA 3.Schoerghofer Philipp AUT

 

Ted Ligety Garmisch 2011 Giant Slalom Winner

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) — Ted Ligety gave the United States its first gold medal of the world championships on Friday when he won the giant slalom title.

Ligety jumped from fourth to first with a clean second run to edge Cyprien Richard of France by .08 seconds.

“It was nerve-wrecking for sure,” Ligety said. “This slope is difficult, especially in these conditions. I thought I’d lost it. I feel so lucky to come back and win it.”

Philipp Schoerghofer of Austria, second after the first run, dropped one back to take the bronze, .43 seconds behind.

First-run leader Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway was fourth, while Ivica Kostelic of Croatia, the overall World Cup leader, fell from third into a tie for 13th.

Ligety has won three of five giant slalom races on the World Cup circuit this season and was considered a top medal prospect. The American was Olympic champion in the combined in 2006, and won the bronze medal in the giant slalom at the worlds two years ago.

The start was moved lower on the Kandahar slope and the course shortened by nine gates to avoid fog at higher elevation.

Bode Miller of the United States had the fastest second run but finished 12th after an error-filled first heat.

Ligety was the first racer out in the opening heat, but had to deal with a rapidly deteriorating course in the second run, when the top 30 start in reverse order. Mild conditions have softened the course over past few days.

The U.S. team also has two silver medals so far at the championships — Lindsey Vonn in the downhill and Julia Mancuso in the super-G.

 

 

Feb.14.2011. Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Super Combined results:

1.Aksel Lund Svindal NOR 2.Christof Innerhofer ITA 3.Peter Fill ITA

 

Aksel Lund Svindal Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2011 SC

Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway recovered from a head-jarring crash to retain his super-combined world championship title Monday, while Christof Innerhofer of Italy earned his third medal in three races by taking silver.

Svindal — who was hurt after skiing into a barrier at the weekend — led comfortably after the downhill portion and conquered a steep slalom course on the Gudiberg slope to stay ahead. Svindal now has nine medals at the Olympics or the world championships, five of them gold.

"I was disappointed after (Saturday's) downhill. I gave everything but it just didn't go my way. That's why I wanted to have another run, because I knew I could be a lot faster," Svindal said.

Innerhofer, with one World Cup victory coming into the championships, now has the full range of medals here. He won gold in the super-G and bronze in the downhill.

"I still don't believe it. I just tried to leave it all out there and risk everything," Innerhofer said. "Right now everything is working for me. It's my moment, my world championships."

"Every medal is different. The first medal, I had not dreamed of that. After the downhill, third place was like a gold medal as the snow was not like I prefer it. And now I feel as happy as if I won three golds."

Innerhofer becomes the first Italian man to win three medals at the world championships since Zeno Colo in 1950 in Aspen, Colorado.

Another Italian, Peter Fill, captured a surprise bronze after benefiting from the mistakes of others.

While the top favourite skipped the race altogether, several others flopped in the slalom leg.

Olympic champion Bode Miller's slalom run was finished before the second gate and his American teammate Ted Ligety straddled a gate.

Olympic bronze medallist Silvan Zurbriggen and Beat Feuz of Switzerland, second after the downhill portion, both failed to finish the slalom run and Benjamin Raich of Austria could not make up his big deficit from the downhill run and had to settle for fourth.

Miller sat too far back on his skis and was catapulted into the air going into the second gate, landing on his back. Just before him, Ligety had ended his run prematurely.

"I just straddled, that's kind of the story of my life in slalom," Ligety said. "But I would not have had much of a chance anyway. I am pretty surprised by how well Peter and Christof and Aksel skied in the slalom portion. If you're three seconds out you have no chance when these guys are skiing that well in slalom."

Innerhofer was third after the downhill and the Italian team lodged an official protest, believing there was a timing error on his run. It was rejected and the team was told that the intermediate times were not accurate, but that the overall time was correct.

"I started the downhill very well but got tired afterward. The final 100 metres, I struggled to keep position," said Innerhofer, who had not trained in slalom for two weeks. "But I felt during warmups that my turns went pretty well."

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia, who swept all three World Cup super-combined races this season and is the Olympic silver medallist in the event, decided to take a break from the world championships to rest on the Adriatic coast and skipped the race. He will return for the giant slalom and slalom events.

Kostelic is eager to win the overall World Cup title for the first time and believes getting some rest will help him protect his big lead in the races coming up after the championships.

Svindal is 536 points behind Kostelic in third place overall, with Didier Cuche in between.

"The overall World Cup is far away with Kostelic having such a massive lead," Svindal said. "That makes the world championships even more important to me, though the overall World Cup is the biggest prize there is."

Svindal used new boots and new skis in the downhill. The Norwegian crashed into the barrier in the finish area in Saturday's downhill and hit his head and hurt his knee. He appeared shaken as he was helped off the finish area.

"I had a scan, my head is OK. My knee is also OK, it's still swollen, but it's OK," Svindal said after Monday's downhill portion.

His winning time for the two runs was two minutes 54.41 seconds. Innerhofer was 1.01 seconds behind and Fill was 1.90 seconds off the pace.

"I tried to race a bit tactically," Svindal said. "I saw Peter Fill avoiding mistakes so I knew I had to be good from start to bottom. Fast, but without mistakes."

AP

 

Super Combined Downhill Men Results:

1.Axel Lund Svindal 2.Feuz Beat 3.Innerhofer Christof

 

Feb.12.2011. Garmisch-Partenkirchen Downhill Men

1.Erik Guay CAN 2.Didier Cuche SUI 3.Christof Innerhofer ITA

Guay beats Cuche, Innerhofer for downhill gold

Erik Guay wins  Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2011 Downhill

 

Erik Guay of Canada has won the men's downhill title at the world championships ahead of pre-race favorites Didier Cuche and Christof Innerhofer.

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) - Erik Guay of Canada has won the men's downhill title at the world championships ahead of pre-race favorites Didier Cuche and Christof Innerhofer.

Guay sped down the 3.3-kilometer Kandahar course in 1 minute, 58.41 seconds, beating Cuche - the World Cup downhill champion from Switzerland - by 0.32.

Italy's Innerhofer, who won super-G gold on Wednesday, trailed Guay by 0.76 to place third after the top 30 racers had completed their run.

Guay is the second straight Canadian winner of the world downhill title after 2009 champion John Kucera, who is recovering from breaking his left leg last season.

 

The "Kandahar" Slope.

At the 2011 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen the "Kandahar" will be the setting for Downhill, Super-G, Giant Slalom, Super Combination of Ladies and Men's and the Team competition. The previous World Cup races proved that the "Kandahar" with its sections

"Tröglhang", "Himmelreich", "Eishang", "Hölle" and "FIS-Schneise" belongs to the most spectacular and most

technical demanding Downhill slopes of the World Cup Circus. The FIS requirements concerning the racecourses of the speed disciplines foresee separate competition courses for Ladies and Men. From this

follows that competition, training, inspection and preparation can be performed independently. To carry out the task, some of the sections of the "Kandahar" have to be enlarged, partially made newly available. During the planning the sustainable use for training activities and ski tourism was highly emphasized. The course for the Men's Downhill will start on the top of "Kreuzjoch". The course for the Ladies Downhill will start right above the very steep "Tröglhang". Ladies will be starting further up compared to the World Cup Finals last spring. A steep pitch with a length of 250m consisting of two curves and a jump over the tunnel of the "Tröglhang" will add excitement to the Ladies' Downhill right from the start.

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Season 2011/2012