ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. Germany’s Maria Riesch won the super combined race in Are on Friday extending her lead over Lindsey Vonn at the top of the overall standings. Tina Maze of Slovenia got second, while Elisabeth Goergl of Austria finished third.

It was an exciting race until the very end. Lindsey Vonn put down an early lead, 0.16 seconds ahead of rival Maria Riesch of Germany in the super G leg of the event. Elisabeth Goergl of Austria followed in third .35 seconds behind, while local hero Anja Paerson lied in wait in fourth, .42 seconds back.

The slalom run, counting 53 gates and set by the Slovenian coach Magoni, seemed to be to the liking of giant slalom world champion and super combined silver medal winner Maze. The Slovenian was in eighth position after the super G and showed her best skiing in the slalom, putting down a combined time of 2:00.00. When Paerson, who was ranked fourth in the super G, came to the bottom of the course, she was.28 seconds behind the Slovenian. Even the Austrian downhill and super G world champion Goergl – although .02 seconds faster than Paerson - had to queue up behind Maze. Goergl’s total run-time was 2:00.26 putting her in second place with two more racers standing on top of the course.

Riesch charged down the slalom trying to make up for missing out on gold at the world championships on home snow in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. She put down a strong run finishing in a combined time of 1:59.60, which put her in the lead, .40 seconds ahead of Maze and .66 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Goergl.

Now Vonn, the American three-times World Cup champion, was the only one left able to snatch away the victory of Riesch. Although Vonn won a super-combined race in Val d'Isere last December and has returned to form on time after the concussion which hampered her performances at the worlds, she struggled to find her rhythm in the slalom today and eventually dropped to sixth place.

Riesch celebrated her fifth victory of the season and increased her overall World Cup lead over American Lindsey Vonn to 216 points.

“I had two strong runs today. In super-G I had a good feeling and good speed and afterwards skied the slalom with much confidence," said Maria Riesch, the reigning Super-combined Olympic Champion.

"It's great to win a super combined again," added the Bavarian who has not captured a World Cup super combined event since her last success at Tarvisio in February 2009.

"I'm looking forward for two strong speed races this weekend. I'm for sure happy to have reinforced my lead in the overall standings but I guess the battle will go on for the next weeks until the Finals in Lenzerheide."

It was Maria Riesch’s 19th World Cup win. In recent months she has mostly excelled in downhill and slalom but moved up to second place in the super combined World Cup standings with one last event remaining in that discipline in Tarvisio. Lindsey Vonn and Elisabeth Georgl, who was a strong 3rd today, are tied in first place.

Austria’s Michaela Kirchgasser finished fifth, while her teammate and the discipline's new world champion Anna Fenninger wanting to show her gold in the worlds was no one time thing, struggled in the slalom and had to settle for ninth place.

FISalpine.com
Friday 25 February 2011