ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. Lindsey Vonn made good on her threat of revenge in Lake Louise on Sunday defeating good friend Maria Riesch by nearly a second to take her first ever Super-G in The Canadian Rockies.

US skier Lindsey Vonn celebrates on the winners' podium in the Women's Super G of the FIS Ski World Cup in Lake Louise. Vonn won the race in a time of 1:20.72. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)

Vonn’s victory, the 34th World Cup win of her career came after two second place finishes in the downhill races here on Friday and Saturday. Vonn won Sunday’s Super-G in 1-minute, 20.72 seconds, 0.83 seconds faster than Riesch who was the downhill victor on Friday and Saturday. Third place went to Vonn’s teammate Julia Mancuso who had been fast all week but off the podium with a 4th and a 6th place in the downhills. Mancuso was 0.89 seconds out of first.

“I definitely wanted to close out this weekend with a bang and make a statement and put people’s doubts to rest and I think I did that today. I tried to have a little revenge yesterday, but I kind of crashed but I still got second, so today I wanted to come out here and really show everyone how I can ski. I’ve been skiing well but making a lot of mistakes but today I wanted to have a great inspection and really execute on the line. I’ve always somehow got the win taken away from me here in Lake Louise in Super-G, I’ve alway lost by a very small margin, so I wanted to make sure there was no room for doubt today and I’m really happy with my skiing. If I can’t win the downhill then it’s great that I can at least win the Super-G,” a smiling Vonn told reporters after the race.

After the race ended, Riesch told reporters she would have liked to have made it a hat trick with a third victory in a row for the weekend, but was still happy with the success she had over the last three days.

“It was a good run not perfect, Lindsey showed how you can be almost a second faster but still second place is really, really good and I’m happy to be back on the podium in Super-G. Going away from Lake Louise with 280 points is giving me a really good feeling, and I’m really happy that I had successful days here and I’m looking forward to St. Moritz because I like this track too,” Riesch said.

The opening weekend of the speed season also ended with a positive note for Mancuso, who said her main focus now would be consistency.

“I’m not putting a lot of pressure on myself right now I just want to go ski. So I think once I get a little more consistent I’ll have a little more drive and fire to win,” Mancuso said.

Austria’s Anna Fenninger continued to build on her great week in Lake Louise with her third top-10 result in as many days. Fenninger finished in fourth place 1.11 seconds out of first.

Fellow Austrian Andrea Fischbacher also had a little redemption on Sunday after skiing off course in Saturday’s downhill. Fischbacher’s time of 1-minute, 22.34 seconds was good enough for a fifth place.

Switzerland’s Fabienne Suter finished in sixth for her third top-10 in three days. Italy’s Johanna Schnarf, Sweden’s Jessica Lindell-Vikarby and Switzerland’s Dominique Gisin, who was third in Saturday’s downhill, finished 7th, 8th, and 9th respectively, and Switzerland’s Andrea Dettling finished in 10th position giving the Swiss ladies three of the top ten spots.

By Michael Mastarciyan
FISalpine.com
Sunday 5 December 2010