ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. A day after her disappointing DNF in the slalom leg of the Super-combined here, USA’s Lindsey Vonn stroke back in today’s fast and challenging Super-G competition, winning her fourth race this season thanks her very aggressive run down the Corviglia course.

The skier from Vail, unbeaten in the speed events so far this winter, beat by 37/100 of a second Slovenia’s Tina Maze while California’s Julia Mancuso came in 3rd at 1,01 seconds. She is now only five wins short from the record of62 World Cup victores set by Austria's Skiing Legend Annemarie Moser-Proell in the 1970s.
 
Switzerland’s Fabienne Suter, who suffered a bad knee injury here last January, was a happy4 th a few hundredths of a second ahead of Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch and France’s Tessa Worley.
 
Two of the top-favorites, Switzerland’s Lara Gut and Austria’s Anna Fenninger apparently disturbed by strong gusts of wind both skied out in the middle of their run.
 
After this race – the ninth World Cup event this season – Maze is still clearly in the lead in the Overall standing with a total of 577 points, 163 more than Hoefl-Riesch while Vonn is now in 3rd place with 410 points.
 
Another 2nd place for Maze.
 
Tina Maze has never been closer to her very first victory in a World Cup Super-G than this time – as it has been the case on Friday, the Slovenian took all possible risks to get down the windy course – which allowed her to set a new best time. Yet a few minutes later, Vonn was a little bit faster than the Overall World Cup leader after charging the course with impressive determination.
 
“I knew I had to move at my limits to win that race, Tina is actually in great shape and there was no other way to beat her,” the skier from Vail admitted after the race. “I fought as hard as possible after my bad day yesterday. The course and weather conditions were pretty tough but I was lucky again that things went right again.”
 
5th win in St. Moritz for Lindsey Vonn.
 
Vonn, who has been racing since 2001 in St. Moritz, celebrates her third Super-G win in a row in the Swiss resort – her fifth in total since 2009. “I enjoy a lot racing here, the town is great and the courses very challenging, I just hope the weather will improve a little tomorrow,” she added.
 
Tina didn’t need too much time to get over her disappointment to face her third 2nd place finish in Super-G in recent years – her best performance in the specialty since the competition in Bad Kleinkirchheim last January.

“I can’t do more than giving my best from top to bottom, I knew that it would not be easy to beat Lindsey today, she is really amazing in that specialty,” the charming 29-year-old said afterwards.

“I was really aiming for the hat-trick here this weekend but I can live with this 2nd place. Tomorrow I’ll go for it again.”
 
Since her victory at Soelden, Maze has accumulated a series on superb results – three wins, three podium finishes and two 4th places in total in seven out of nine events. She has not been very efficient yet in downhill at Lake Louise, but it’s only a matter of time until she also finds her best form in that specialty – especially on technically demanding runs.
 
Maze will be the skier to beat in Sunday’s giant slalom – the third this season. She already won a giant slalom here seven years ago. Among her toughest rivals are Austria’s Kathrin Zettel and Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg as well as France’s Tessa Worley.

MMJL
A.I.J.S., 08 December 2012

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