Aspen: Poutiainen fastest in GS first run

Finnish veteran Tanja Poutiainen was fastest in the first run of giaint slalom Saturday as three Americans qualified for the second run.

ASPEN, Colorado — Finnish veteran Tanja Poutiainen, the Olympic GS silver medalist, was fastest in the first run of giaint slalom Saturday as three Americans qualified for the second run.
    Poutianen descended Lower Ruthie's Run in bright sunshine in a time of 1 minute, 8.82 seconds, edging  Austrians Kathrin Zettel and Michaela Kirchgasser. American Julia Mancuso, the 2006 Olympic GS champ, was 1.88 back in eighth. Jessica Kelley, starting 39th, skied strong to finish 16th, and slalom specialist Resi Stiegler, trying to broaden her alpine resume, had an error-free run to finish 30th and just qualify for the second run. 
    Mancuso, testing a surgically repaired hip for the first time in a World Cup race, said her hip didn't hurt but the tight, turn-filled course set was a challenge.
   "I was intimidatd by the tight radius of the course. I held back a little bit," Mancuso said. "It’s not too bad, it looks like a lot of girls are having trouble with the set."
    Kelley, aiming for the best World Cup GS result of her career, was a mixture a joy and relief in the finish after the first run.
    "I’m used to going down [the course] and it always says 28th place and I'm starting 39th so that can’t be good," Kelley said. "It’s nice to see 15 [at that time of the race], knowing I'm in the second run for sure.
    "I knew I had skied reallly well in training and I wanted to do that in a race once, in a World Cup race especially."
    Second-run start time was set for 1 p.m.
    Americans failing to qualify for the second run were Katie Hitchcock (33rd), Caitlin Ciccone (37th), Stacey Cook (42nd), Megan McJames (46th), Lindsey Kildow (DNF) and Libby Ludlow (55th). McJames and Ciccone were making their World Cup debuts.     
    “I was nervous but mostly when I was in the gate I just decided to go for it," McJames said. “It felt kind of rough but the course held up pretty well.
    “It was tough and I skied my best. I just made a mistake so there’s nothing you can do about it.”
    McJames said it felt good to get start No. 1. out of the way. “I’m glad its over," she said. "I was nervous. Now hopefully I will be able to rip it next time.”
    Kildow had a solid run going before skiing off course. “I was charging," Kildow said. "I went a little too straight in a really tricky section. I was a little disappointed, but I’m skiing fast. My interval was really good so I just have to take away the positives from it. I’m really excited for tomorrow."
    Hitchcock was skiing in just her second career World Cup, and the first on home soil. “It was fun, it was a lot smoother than I expected, and I’m happy it’s over, I’m happy the first one is over," Hitchcock said after missing out on a second run by just 11 hundredths. “I remember five years ago being with the development team and being out here forerunning for these girls. I knew it was going to take a long time to get here and a lot of hard work, but it’s pretty cool that I achieved it.”
    Poutiainen finished 14th in the season-opening slalom at Levi, Finland, on Nov. 11. ''I didn't make a lot of mistakes but there were certainly some difficult places,'' said Poutiainen, who gave Finland its first-ever Olympic medal in near-blizzard conditions at Sestriere last winter. ''It was turny and very tight. This is promising for me especially after my disappointment in Levi and a bad patch in the World Cup last season.''
    Croatia's Janica Kostelic, last year's World Cup overall and slalom champion, is sitting out the season because of chronic back and knee pain.
    Anja Paerson, the World Cup giant slalom champion and Olympic slalom gold medalist, also is struggling after surgery on her left knee after last season's World Cup Finals in Sweden. Paerson finished a disappointing 12th in the Levi slalom, and the Swede went off course about halfway down when her outside ski ashed out on a right turn.
    ''It's high altitude, the snow was aggressive and the course was hard-set,'' said the 2004 and '05 overall World Cup champion, who was runner-up last year behind Kostelic. ''I really thought I was in good shape coming into today. It was really bad to go out the way I did. I need to get more races in my system to get my rhythm back.''

— Ski Racing's Don Cameron and The Associated Press contributed to this report.