Cortina: Mancuso wins super G: Kildow 4th

American Julia Mancuso continued her stellar January, winning a World Cup super G Friday ahead of two Austrian standouts.
    Mancuso, who won the first World Cup race of her career before Christmas at Val d'Isere and won again last week in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, was fastest Friday with a time of 1 minute, 16.25 seconds. Austrian Nicole Hosp was second, .33 back, with teammate Renate Goetschl third, .34 back.
    American Lindsey Kildow, starting 30th as the last of the contenders, had a slow start but made up tons of time on the bottom half of the course, just failing to podium by finishing fourth, .39 back. Five U.S. women finished in the top 30. 

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — American Julia Mancuso continued her stellar January, winning a World Cup super G Friday ahead of two Austrian standouts.
    Mancuso, who won the first World Cup race of her career before Christmas at Val d'Isere (downhill) and won again last week in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee (super combi), was fastest Friday with a time of 1 minute, 16.25 seconds. Austrian Nicole Hosp was second, .33 back, with teammate Renate Goetschl third, .34 back.
    American Lindsey Kildow, starting 29th, had a slow start but made up tons of time on the bottom half of the course, just failing to podium by finishing tied for fourth, .39 back.
    "Everything fit together perfectly," Mancuso said. "I felt confident, but mostly it was just being able to have confidence in my equipment when I left the start gate. I had that extra confidence to push the line, know I could handle any line.
    "I was very surprised and excited with my skiing. It's been going very consistently. Everything's going great," she said.
    The rains and mild temperatures created an unknown factor as organizers poured stabilizing ingredients on the course.  Mancuso figured the race wasn't going to happen, so she and the others went back to the hotel and watched "The Big Lebowski" — and then she bowled over the opposition when the call came at 1:30 for a 2 p.m. start.
    "We've talked about delays and how the girls have to be ready when they say 'Go!'… and they stayed in the game, did a good job of being ready," U.S. DH/SG head coach Alex Hoedlmoser said.
    "It's very warm and they used chemicals to harden [the course]," Mancuso said, "and we thought if it cleared up it would be OK, but it turns out it was very soft. I definitely felt the whole way down my edges were digging in, but I had no problems. It was like Spring Series with the soft snow."
    U.S. racers crowded the top 30 Friday. Kirsten Clark was 20th, Libby Ludlow 28th, Stacey Cook 29th, Kaitlin Richardson 33rd and Resi Stiegler 41st. Caitlin Ciccone did not finish.
    Five Austrians placed in the top 12, but overall points leader Marlies Schild, a slalom specialist, failed to finish.
   
Hoedlmoser: "I thought she blew the race …"
    Cortina is one of the toughest women's speed courses on the World Cup, but Mancuso wasn't rattled. "I was looking for my tuck a lot of the way down," she laughed, "but I kept saying, 'I can't do it here … Nope, not here … more turns, not here…' I think, in general, I just kept it rolling; if you keep it rolling here, there's always more hill…"
    "Julia was absolutely perfect on the top but in the middle, just before she came onto the flats at the bottom," Hoedlmoser said, "she had a couple of pretty good mistakes. One mistake affected a couple of gates and I thought she blew the race there, but she kept it together and held the lead all the way down.
    "The bottom wasn't perfect, but she didn't let go," Hoedlmoser added. "And Lindsey skied the middle and the bottom really well, but she lost a lot at the top, so we have to analyze that because she didn't feel like she'd lost any time. Maybe she had a little wind up top, but otherwise she skied so well."
    Mancuso won the Jan. 14 super combined with Kildow second and Stiegler fourth for the best World Cup finish by U.S. women in history. Friday marked her third career World Cup win and third of the season. Mancuso moves past Diann Roffe, Billy Kidd, Tyler Palmer and Kyle Rasmussen into 18th on the all-time U.S. win list. It is her sixth top-five placing this season.
    It is the 171st U.S. Cup win. With 10 wins on the season, the U.S. team has passed the 1982 team's win total for the most wins before the end of January.
    The race started several hours late due to rain and an electrical outage. The race was originally scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. local time but did not start until 2 p.m., the latest usual start time for World Cup races.
    Organizers said the course's electrical system went out briefly, but that the power had since been restored. The temperature on the Olympia delle Tofane course was above freezing and it had been raining for several hours.
    A downhill and giant slalom are scheduled for the course on Saturday and Sunday.
    "They're calling for cold tonight, and if that happens," Hoedlmoser said, "this will be hard snow for the downhill tomorrow because there's so much water in the snow. It didn't start raining until morning, but then it poured. It's like a natural injection."
    Amid the warmest winter in years, organizers airlifted artificial snow by helicopter to the upper reaches of the course last week to prepare for the races.
    The U.S. team for the World Championships is expected to be announced early next week; the championships are Feb. 3-18 in Are, Sweden.

THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women's super G, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Jan. 19, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Mancuso, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
2 Hosp, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
3 Goetschl, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Kildow, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4 Fischbacher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Paerson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
7 Berger, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Fanchini, Dynastar/Lange/Look
8 Lindell-Vikarby, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
10 Haltmayr, Fischer/Lange/Fischer

Women's super G, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Jan. 19, 2007. … It is the 19th race of the women's 37-event World Cup schedule. … It is the fourth of seven scheduled SGs, the third held. … It is the 17th SG held at Cortina. … It is the first of a three-race set scheduled for Cortina. … Start of race delayed by heavy rain.
    It is the third career win for Julia Mancuso and her third of the season, each in a different discipline. … She won a DH at Val d'Isere Dec. 19 and combined at Zauchensee Jan. 14. … She has been on the podium in five of her last eight races. … It is the 171st U.S. World Cup win. … Mancuso moves to a tie for 12th on the
all-time U.S. win list, matching the career victory mark of Barb Cochran, Bill Johnson, Hilary Lindh, Julie Parisien, Marilyn Cochran, Holly Flanders and Judy Nagel. … It is the first U.S. SG win at Cortina. … Picabo Street win two DHs ('95 & '96) and Steve Mahre won a slalom in December 1981.
    It is the 30th career podium for Nicole Hosp. … Her sixth of the season. … It is the fifth time this season she has finished second in a World Cup race. … It is her fourth career SG podium in just her sixth completed SG, the first coming last March. … She has finished seventh (Lake Louise Dec. 2), second (Reiteralm Dec. 16) and second (Cortina) in the three SGs held this season.
    It is the 96th career podium for Renate Goetschl. … Her 35th in SG. … It is her 20th podium at Cortina and her 10th SG podium at Cortina. … She won the Cortina SG in 2003, 2004 and twice in 2005. … She has also won four DH's at the site.
    It is the seventh time Lindsey Kildow has finished in the top four this season. … In nine completed races at Cortina, Kildow has been a top-five finisher seven times. … She finished third in the Cortina SG last season when Anja Paerson won and Mancuso was second. … It is the 13th career top-15 finish for Kelly VanderBeek and bests her personal best at Cortina by one placing. … She has been in the top 15 in six of her seven completed races this season. … It is the fifth to- 20 placing of the season for Kirsten Clark. … Her 17th top 20 at Cortina. … Her best SG result at the site is ninth in 2004. … It is the 21st-best career SG result for Genevieve Simard. … It is the 10th scoring result of the season for Emily Brydon. … The fourth for Libby Ludlow, third in SG. … It is the sixth scoring finish of the season for Stacey Cook. … It is second time this season five U.S. competitors have scored in the same race after the Reiteralm super combined.
    Marlies Schild (DNF in race) maintains the World Cup overall standings lead 881-828 over Nicole Hosp. … Mancuso is third in the standings at 634. … Renate Goetschl (tied for 4th in race) holds the SG standings lead 260-196 for Hosp. … Kildow is third at 130 and Mancuso fourth at 113. … Winning margin is .33. … Top 10 skiers are within a second of the winner. … Top 24 skiers within two seconds.

Cortina women's World Cup super G results

Did not start 1st run:
POUTIAINEN Tanja (FIN)

Did not finish 1st run:
LAWRENCE Sherry (CAN), CICCONE Caitlin (USA), REBENSBURG Viktoria (GER), BENT Nike (SWE), STYGER Nadia (SUI), SCHILD Marlies (AUT), WIRTH Katja (AUT)

Super G World Cup standings (after 3 of 7 races)
1. Renate Goetschl, Austria, 260 points.
2. Nicole Hosp, Austria, 196.
3. Lindsey Kildow, United States, 130.
4. Julia Mancuso, United States, 113.
5. Martina Schild, Switzerland, 110.
6. Anja Paerson, Sweden, Sweden, 102.
7. Kathrin Wilhelm, Austria, 92.
8. Kelly VanderBeek, Canada, 78.
9. Nadia Fanchini, Italy, 77.
10. Silvia Berger, Austria, 72.
11. Genevieve Simard, Canada, 68.
12. Emily Brydon, Canada, 64.
13. Petra Haltmayr, Germany, 63.
14. Alexandra Meissnitzer, Austria, 57.
15. Fraenzi Aufdenblatten, Switzerland, 55.

Overall World Cup standings (after 19 of 33 races)
1. Marlies Schild, Austria, 881 points.
2. Nicole Hosp, Austria, 828.
3. Julia Mancuso, United States, 634.
4. Renate Goetschl, Austria, 601.
5. Lindsey Kildow, United States, 578.
6. Kathrin Zettel, Austria, 562.
7. Anja Paerson, Sweden, 484.
8. Sarka Zahrobska, Czech Republic, 390.
9. Michaela Kirchgasser, Austria, 379.
10. Tanja Poutiainen, Finland, 358.
11. Ingrid Jacquemod, France, 337.
12. Therese Borssen, Sweden, 292.
13. Ana Jelusic, Croatia, 286.
14. Andrea Fischbacher, Austria, 264.
15. Kelly VanderBeek, Canada, 221