European National Championship Report

Swiss Nationals

Junior racer Justin Murisier made a big statement in taking the men’s super combined rather handily over Mauro Caviezel and Marc Gisin.  Patrick Kueng and Beat Feuz rounded out the top five in races at Stoos.

In the women’s combined event it was Nadja Kamer for the title with Marianne Abderhalden second, Tamara Wolf third, Andrea Dettling and junior Jasmin Rothmund in fourth and fifth respectively.

Kamer added her second title in the downhill 66 hundredths ahead of Dettling. Rabea Grand got third, Fabienne Suter fourth and Nadia Styger fifth.

World Cup downhill champ Didier Cuche placed third in the men’s national downhill behind race winner Kueng and runner-up Feuz. Fourth went to German Stephan Keppler and fifth to Ami Oreiller.

After cancellation of the super G’s the Swiss moved to Hoch Ybrig for the gate races. Marina Nigg collected the Swiss slalom crown with Grand in second and Rothmund furthering her bid for the World Cup team in third. The even younger Wendy Holdener got fourth and Dea Kuonen fifth a strong testimonial for the Swiss junior program.

The men’s slalom had a more mature feel to it with Markus Vogel in first, Italian Patrick Thaler second, Silvan Zurbriggen in third, Sandro Viletta fourth and Marc Gisin fifth.

Women’s GS went to Kamer, her second title, with Styger second in a close race and Austrian Anna Fenninger third. Czech Sarka Zahrobska was fourth and Dettling fifth. The men’s GS was cancelled.

Men’s super G was later contested at Zinal with Tobias Gruenenfelder snagging the win over Sandro Viletta. Yannick Bertrand of France was third, Ami Oreiller fourth and Cornal Zueger fifth.

German Nationals

The Germans held their gate races at Feldberg with Thomas Tumler, of Switzerland, taking the opening GS over Fritz Dopfer. Another Swiss, Sandro Boner, was third, Philipp Schmid fourth and Benedikt Staubitzer fifth.

The Swiss dominated the German men’s slalom with Boner claiming the win over Marco Tumler, Dmitri Cuche in third and Markus Vogel in fourth. The first German was Stephane Kogler in fifth

With 25 skiers failing to finish the first run of the women’s slalom Nina Perner posted a fast second run to overtake Susuanne Riech for the German Women’s Slalom crown. Christian Geiger was third, Monica Huebner fourth and Barbara Wirth fifth holding off a trio of outsiders, Japan’s Mizue Hoshi, Belgium’s Karen Persyn and Italian Sara Pramstaller.

Pramstaller made a charge in the title GS, but no one was close to Riesch’s time as she came in 1.97 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Lena Duerr got third, another Italian, Sarah Pardeller, was fourth and Wirth was fifth again.

The Germans moved to St Moritz in Switzerland for their speed races. Hannes Wagner, Anton Lindebner and Keppler went one-two-three respectively in the downhill with Timo Bruederl fourth and Klaus Brandner fifth.  The men’s “junior” downhill, didn’t technically have a junior among the top five as Andrea Strodl took the win, Wagner was second, Keppler third, Andreas Sander fourth and Josef Ferstl fifth.

Isabelle Stiepel, who is a junior, took the women’s senior downhill title over Veronique Hronek with Susanne Riesch third, Iris Dorsch fourth and Mirena Kueng of Switerland fifth.  Stiepel also took the junior race title over non-juniors Gina Stechert in second, Katharina Duerr third and Kueng in fourth. Michaela Wenig got the second best junior result in fifth.

Swiss Beat Feuz and Jonas Fravi got the top two SG placings with Philipp Zepnik the first from the host country across the line in  third. Two more Swiss, Cornel Zueger and Vitus Lueoend, followed in that order.

Keppler got the German super combined title over Ferstl with Bruederl in third, Andreas Sander fourth and Marvin Ackermann fifth.

Gina Stechert won the women’s super G title ahead of junior Hronek with Susanne Riesch in third. Swiss Tamara Wolf was fourth and German junior Iris Dorsch in fifth. Duerr took the super combined title over Stechert with Stiepel in third, just a tenth behind Stechert. Mirena Kueng was fourth and Monica Huebner fifth.

Austrian Nationals

The Austrian efficiently got in all their races and a few more in eight days at Innerkrems, and took a day off as well. They kicked off with women’s slalom and Marlies Schild got a run away win, taking both runs to save Austrian honor. Italian Irene Curtoni was second, Liechtenstein’s Marina Nigg was third, Japan’s Mizue Hoshi fourth and Swiss Jessica Puenchera fifth.

No such foreign invasion at the top of the women’s GS order the next day, but it was junior dominated with Evelyn Pernkopf getting the win over Berndette Schilld and Cornelia Tiefenbacher third. Older racers got fourth from Christina Staudinger and fifth from Andrea Fischbacher.

Alexander Koll took the men’s slalom win away from Italian Patrick Thaler with a fast second run. Christoph Dreier was third. Czech Krystof Kryzl notched fourth and Wolfgang Hoerl was fifth. There was a huge DNF rate in the race with World Cup slalom title winner Reinfried Herbst among 40 plus who failed to negotiate the first run and Manfred Pranger among 30 plus who didn’t complete the second heat.

Men’s GS with to Marcel Hirscher with a comfortable margin over Miha Kuerner of Slovenia. Hannes Reichelt was third and Slovene Janez Jazbec was fourth. Bernhard Graf was fifth.

Men’s super combined had a World Cup feel to it. Joachim Puchner got the win over Croate star Ivica Kostelic as he matched his silver medal placing from the Olympics. Romed Baumann was third and Croate Natko Zrncic-Dim was fourth. Grabbing a tie for fifth was Krystof Kryzl of the Czech Republic and Franz Promok.

Carmen Thalmann used a potent slalom leg to take the women’s Austrian National super combined title stopping a couple of Italians, Daniela Merighetti in the silver medal spot and Anna Hofer in the bronze. Fourth went to Michaela Kirchgasser and fifth to Puchner.

Kostelic earned the super G title by a huge margin of nearly a full second over Klaus Kroell. Manuel Kramer was third and Slovene Andrej Sporn fourth. Baumann captured fifth.

The women’s title was all Austrian power with Elisabeth Goergl getting the win, Fischbacher second, Stefanie Moser third, Regina Mader in fourth before Merighetti managed to mix it up by getting fifth for Italy.

Men’s downhill was won by Hans Grugger over Hannes Reichelt. Vincent Kriechmayr, a junior, posted third. Czech Petr Zahrobska was fourth and Joachim Puchner fifth.

The women’s downhill went to Staudinger over Nicole Schmidhofer. Stefanie Moser was third with the top junior, Cornelia Tiefenbacher in fourth and the younger Cornelia Huetter in fifth.

Norwegian Nationals

In Narvik Aksel Lund Svindal got the downhill win over Lars Elton Myhre with Kjetil Jansrud in third, Aian Sandvik fourth and Espen Lysdahl fifth. Women’s race went to Lotte Smiseth Sejersted narrowly ahead of Kristina Riis-Johannessen. Thea Grosvold was third, Ragnhild Mowinckel fourth and Mona Loeseth fifth. The entire field was made up of junior competitors.

Myhrer turned the table in the men’s super combined taking Svindal by a half a second for the win. Lysdahl was third, Jansrud fourth and Truls Ove Karlsen f
ifth. The women’s combined looked much like the downhill result with Sejersted in first, Riis-Johannessen in second and Grosvold third. Swede Nathalie Blom posted fourth and Chole Margrethe Fausa was fifth.

Svindal added the super G title over Iver Bjerkestrand with Jansrud third, Espen Theoforsen fourth and Markus Nilsen fifth. Women’s super G went to Mona Loeseth over Grosvold and Nina Loeseth was third. Mowinckel was fourth and Synne Sofie Stangeland fifth.

It was Jansrud over Svindal for the GS crown with Bjerkestrand in third, Nilsen fourth and Johan Pietilae Holmner of Sweden fifth. Mona Loeseth beat Lene Loeseth for the women’s GS title with Grosvold again third and Mowinckel again fourth. Fausa was fifth.

Men’s slalom went to Jonathon Nordbotten over Myhrer by a few hundredths. Sebastian-Foss Solevaag was third, Truls Johansen fourth and Lysdahl fifth. Grosvold broke the strong of thirds to win the women’s slalom over Annie Winquist. Merle Soppela was third for Finland, Blom fourth for Sweden and Mowinckel got fifth.

French Nationals

The French met at Les Menuires for their title meet with the guys running first and women skiing later in the week. The downhill went to Adrien Theaux over Yannick Bertrand. Johan Clarey was third, Sebastien Pichot was fourth and Guillermo fifth.

The super combined went to Francois Place over Pichot. Mathieu Faivre was third, Alexandre Pasquier fourth and Alexis Pinturault fifth.

Theaux got his second win of the meet in the super G more than a second ahead of Pichot in secnd, Paul Schroeder was third, Bertand fourth and Brice Roger fifth.

The slalom went to Faivre over Maxime Tissot. Thomas Mermillod Blondin was third and Julien Lizeroux just fourth. Norman Blanc was fifth.

In the women’s slalom Nastasia Noens took the win over Marion Bertrand with Claire Dautherives a close third. Anne-Sophie Barthet was fourth and Taina Barioz fifth.

The French women’s GS title belongs to Anemone Marmotton over Barioz with Tessa Worley in third, Barthet fourth and Olivia Bertrand fifth.

Marie Marchand-Arvier got the super G title over Ingrid Jacquemod by two hundredths. Marmotton was third a little over a tenth out. Charlene Gardet was fourth and Aurelie Revillet fifth.

Revillet took the downhill crown over Marine Gauthier. Jacquemod was third, Gardet fourth and Jennifer Piot fifth.

Jacquemod collected the super combined title over Geroudet. Adeline Baud was third, Mireia Gutierrez of Andorra was fourth and Romane Miradoli fifth.

Italian Nationals

The Italians were hosted by Falcade and Patrick Staudacher got the first win in the opening downhill a couple of tenths ahead of Hagen Patscheider. Siegmar Klotz was third, Mirko DeFlorian fourth and Michele Cortella fifth.

Women’s downhill title went to Elena Fanchini over Johanna Schnarf with Enrica Cipriani in third and Sabrina Fanchini fourth. Daniela Merighetti was fifth.

Staudacher doubled up with the super G win this one over Cartella. Aronne Pieruz was third, Patscheider fourth and Michael Gufler fifth. Cipriani got the women’s super G title over Elisabeth Egger. Lisa Magdalena Agerer was third, Anna Hofer fourth and Johanna Schnarf fifth.

Men’s slalom went to Manfred Moelgg over Patrick Thaler. Cristian Deville was third and Czech Ondrej Bank fourth. Stefano Gross sealed up fifth place.

The women held GS the same day with Irene Curtoni coming from behind to counter the first run effort of Denise Karbon for the win. Angerer was third, Japan’s Emi Hasegawa fourth and Francesca Marsaglia fifth.

In the men’s GS Moelgg collected his scond win of the title meet over Alexander Ploner. Massimiliana Blardone was third, Adam Peraudo fourth and Jonas Senoner fifth.

Curtoni picked up her second Italian titles in as many days by claiming the slalom over Nicole Gius. Karbon was third, Camilla Borsotti fourth and Carmen Thalmann of Austria fifth. – Hank McKee

GEPA Photos from top: Justin Murisier, Nina Perner, Evelyn Pernkop,  Jonathon Nordbotten, Adrien Theaux and Patrick Staudacher