ALPINE SKIING, WORLD CUP. Switzerland's Carlo Janka achieved another impressive performance today at Garmisch-Partenkirchen winning his 7th World Cup race - his 5th this winter - after an aggressive run in the lower part of the new 'Kandahar' downhill run. The giant slalom Olympic champion beat Austria's Mario Scheiber by only 2/100 of a second to celebrate his third downhill win in three months. This performance propelled him into 2nd place in the downhill World Cup standings and in first place in the Overall standings, 54 points ahead of Austria's Benjamin Raich.

Canada's Erik Guay achieved his best downhill result this season in finishing 3rd - tying with Switzerland promising Patrick Kueng who reached his first ever World Cup podium. Guay won his first downhill race here two years ago. Didier Cuche, the new downhill World Cup champion, was a disappointed 8th - yet at only 19/100 of a second.

'Iceman' remained cool under pressure.

Janka proved once more today that he fully deserves his nickname 'Iceman', remaining totally cool during his crucial run despite the great importance of that first race of the 2010 World Cup Finals. A distant 15th in the only training run on Wednesday, Carlo, also called 'Janks' by his teammates, had to score a great result this morning to remain in the hunt for the Overall standings before the technical events scheduled on Friday and Saturday.

Benjamin Raich, who decided not to enter that downhill to better prepare the next competitions, was leading the Overall standings by 46 points after the recent races at Kvitfjell.

"This is crazy, you surely need some luck to win that race with such a small margin," Janka told the press after his win. "I didn't feel so fast in the upper part of the course so I fought harder at the bottom," the Swiss added. "

"I knew I could ski fast here today on this course so I felt pretty relaxed and confident. Of course, it's a special win for me, it's always great to excel in downhill. I didn't feel nervous prior to my start because I had already accomplished a lot this season and I did not really feel any pressure this morning. I was ready to fight hard for the Overall title.  I already mentioned that I had some great performances over the past few months and I does not really matter to me if I end up with the overall title or not."

"It's fun to be in the lead of the general classification now but it's not over yet. I'll need to do well again tomorrow in the super-G race because Benjamin Raich can for sure score more points than me in the technical events. I think we still need to wait a few days to know who's going to clinch the big globe."

No Swiss skier managed to take the big Crystal globe since Paul Accola's victory back in 1992, which was 18 years ago! Didier Cuche often reached the overall podium in recent years - and he is again aiming for a 3rd overall title this season. "I guess Carlo has now a greater chance to succeed, he has not finished to surprize us," said the Swiss veteran after his run. "He is amazing."

For the first time since 1991/92, no Austrian skier was able to win a World Cup downhill this season - yet at least an Austrian captured the Olympic gold medal in that specialty at Val d'Isère - French-born Patrick Ortlieb, who grew up in Lech, Voralberg, where his French dad was running a hotel. In today's downhill, Mario Scheiber missed victory by mere 2/100 of a second! At Whistler Creek, he also lost bronze in downhill by such a small margin.

"It's really tough, I have lost so often by only a few hundredths, I'm pretty disappointed," Scheiber said afterwards. "I skied pretty well today and I was hoping for the victory after my solid run," added the 27-year-old who scored a dozen of podium finishes on the World Cup tour including eight 2nd places but no win yet.

"I have to be happy with my performances this winter as it's my comeback season but I have been quite unlucky sometimes in past months," said Scheiber who was disqualified at Bormio after clocking the third best time of the race because of a problem with his ski boots. "I would be in 3rd position now in the downhill World Cup standings without that problem at Bormio, it's hard. But at least I know I can be fast again and I hope to show it again tomorrow in the super-G."

After winning his first super-G race last Sunday in Norway, Erik Guay finally got a podium finish also in the downhill after a rather disappointing season in that specialty. "It's a great way to end that season. Such good results will give me much momentum and confidence for the coming season," the skier from Quebec, who was 5th twice at the Olympics in the speed events, said afterwards. "I was aiming for a good result on this hill where I did so well a few years ago and I'm extremely happy to have done it."

The defending downhill World Cup champion Michael Walchhofer had to be happy with a distant 9th place - only a few hundredths ahead of slalom specialist Ivica Kostelic, a two-time silver medallist at Whistler Mountain.

The new downhill Olympic Champion Didier Defago came in 13th just behind silver medallist Aksel Lund Svindal after making several big mistakes in the lower part of the demanding course, avoiding a bad crash after a jump. Veteran Marco Buechel was pleased to score a few more points today in his very last World Cup downhill race. The 38-year-old finished a respectable 14th less than a second behind the winners.

PkL
FISalpine.com
Wednesday 10 March 2010