Gut gives St. Moritz fans reason to cheer

On a beautifully sunny but windy day in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Lara Gut certainly gave the crowd something to cheer about with her first downhill victory of the season. Gut’s precise, clean skiing landed her ahead of Anna Fenninger by 0.32 seconds and Hungary’s Edit Miklos in third, 0.58 seconds behind. It is the first podium of Miklos’ career.

St. Moritz, which is an annual stop on the women’s World Cup tour, tested out a new track in preparation for the 2017 World Championships. The course was said by athletes to have it all: long gliding sections; big, dynamic turns; several blind rolls; and large jumps.

No one handled the changing terrain and tempo better than Gut. Starting bib 16, she stayed within reach of then-leader Miklos on the long gliding top section, that at times was wind-aided, and then made up significant time through the sweeping turns in the middle. She skied with aggression and precision, smoothly linking her turns together to take the lead away from Miklos.

“It’s never easy for me to be fast in the top and relatively flat section, I have to fight a lot. I still managed to be faster there today than in training,” explained Gut. “Some girls had a tail wind and some didn’t, that is part of the game. We have had races with conditions that were much less regular than today, with stronger winds or clouds.”

It is the 12th World Cup win of Gut’s career, giving her confidence heading into the 2015 Vail-Beaver Creek World Championships, where she will be considered one of the favorites after sweeping the speed events held on the Raptor course last season. Gut’s victory led a strong showing from the Swiss team with Fabienne Suter and Nadja Jnglin-Kamer finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.

“It’s a great start to the weekend for me and to have three Swiss racers in the top 7 makes it even better,” said Gut.

Anna Fenninger found herself on the podium for the second race in a row after finishing second last weekend in the Cortina D’Ampezzo super G. It is the sixth podium result of the season for Fenninger, with five of those second places. Fenninger had the lead through the first three intervals over Gut before losing time in the most technical turns of the course and ultimately landing in second place overall.

“My skiing was perfect in the middle section, but was good again in the lower part,” said Fenninger “I’m just happy with that second place, considering the problems I had in the past years to be fast on here.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day came from Miklos, who started bib 2 and was able to hold off the challenges of the first 15 skiers on course before Gut was finally able to take the lead away. The Hungarian held nothing back and built a strong advantage on the top gliding section and was able to ski with smart tactics through the remainder of the course to find herself on the first World Cup podium of her career. Her previous best result was a fifth-place finish last March in Crans Montana, Switzerland. The two results are the only two top-10 World Cup finishes of her career.

“I believe in me and I know that if I manage to put in a good run, then I can hope for a good place,” Miklos said. “To make the podium today is very important to me. I’ve put a lot effort in training and always tried my best and it finally pays off. It makes me very happy.”

Lindsey Vonn, fresh off of her recording-breaking weekend in Cortina, held the lead at the first two intervals over Gut. But she ran into trouble and had to make an impressive recovery after losing her outside ski, getting twisted around and falling on her hip. The time lost was too significant to put up any threat for a top 10, and she ended up 23rd, 2.03 seconds back.

“I knew there was some tail wind, head wind going on on the top and I was trying to risk a lot and to push the line a little bit,” said Vonn. “I pushed a little bit too hard. I was a little bit too inside of my body and caught the inside ski. But tomorrow is another day so I’ll just have to try again.”

Laurenne Ross skied a strong run to lead the Americans in 12th, followed by Alice Mckennis in 22nd and Julia Mancuso in 25th. Stacey Cook, Julia Ford and Katie Ryan were 34th, 44th, and 50th, respectively. Jackie Wiles was within striking distance on the top interval, but took a scary fall that landed her in the fence. She was able to ski away on her own.

Overall leader Tina Maze finished 1.74 seconds back in 18th, and Canadian Larisa Yurkiw was once again in the points in 19th.

The women race super G tomorrow in the final event before World Championships begin on Feb. 2.

The Scoop

By Hank McKee

1. Gut, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
2. Fenninger, Head/Head/Head
3. Miklos, Head/Head/Head
4. Rebensburg, Stoeckli/Lange/Atomic
5. Suter, Dynastar/Lange/Atomic  
6. Jnglin-Kamer, Stoeckli/Tecnica/Marker
7. Ruiz Castillo, Stoeckli/Salomon/Salomon
8. Goergl, Head/Head/Head
9. Weirather, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10. Kling, Head/Head/Head

Women’s World Cup downhill, St Moritz, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2015:

• It is the 19^th of 34 races on the women’s 2015 World Cup calendar … the sixth of eighth scheduled downhills, and the last downhill before the World Championships. … It is the 45th World Cup race hosted by St. Moritz .. the 21^st downhill. … Lindsey Vonn won the last DH held at St Moritz (Jan. 28, 2012).
• It is the 12^th career World Cup win for Lara Gut. … The win comes at the site of her first win in 2008. … It is her second win of the season after taking the Lake Louise super G Dec. 7. … The winning margin is .32 of a second … top five skiers are within the same second, top 21 within two seconds.
• It is the 34^th career World Cup podium placing for Anna Fenninger … her seventh in downhill. … It is her fifth podium of the season and fourth second-place finish.
• It is the first career World Cup podium for Edit Miklos and the first for Hungary. … Miklos’ previous best had been fifth in DH at Crans Montana March 2 of last season.
• It is the fifth best DH result of the season for Laurenne Ross … the fourth best for Larisa Yurkiw, and the fourth best for Alice McKennis. … Lindsey Vonn matches her 76^th best World Cup DH result. … Julia Mancuso matches her 83^rd best career World Cup DH finish.
• Tina Maze (18^th in race) holds her lead of the World Cup overall standings 985-721 over Fenninger. … Mikaela Shiffrin (did not race) is third overall with 605pts. … Lindsey Vonn is fourth with 546pts.
• Vonn leads the downhill standings 366-287 with two races remaining to contest. … Viktoria Rebensburg (fourth in race) is third in the downhill standings with 269pts. … Ross is eighth with 191pts. … Yurkiw ninth with 178pts.
• Austria leads the World Cup women’s Nations Cup 3339-1973 over the U.S. … Sweden is third with 1544ps. … Canada is ninth with 494pts. … The U.S. lead in the downhill standings is cut to 921-920 over Austria.

Results