ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland – The weather took a turn for the perfect on Sunday for the Nation Team event at World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide, and Germany claimed victory.

About 10 fresh centimeters of snow fell Saturday night, but the sun was shining in a cloudless, blue sky Sunday as Italy was the runner up and Austria took third place in the event that featured nine nations and parallel giant slalom format.

Nearly all the top contenders from every top nation in the World Cup competed, except for the United States, which did not participate in the team event. The Swiss team elicited the loudest cheers from the enthusiastic crowd, but ended up fourth.

The Czech Republic’s Ondrej Bank posted the fastest run time of the day, in 30.60 seconds, and newly crowned World Cup overall champion Maria Riesch had the fastest time of the women in 31.25.

In the 2011 Overall Nation Cup, Austria was once again the runaway winner with 10,644 total points from the season’s combined men’s and women’s results. Switzerland came next with 6,576 points and then Italy with 5,488. Austria, Switzerland and Italy have finished 1-2-3 in the Nation Cup every year since 2007.

FISalpine.com
Sunday 20 March 2011