Liechtenstein's Weirather wins world juniors GS; Fenninger wraps up overall

Liechtenstein’s Weirather wins world juniors GS; Fenninger wraps up overallMONT-SAINTE-ANNE, Quebec – Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein, the daughter of 1980 Olympic giant slalom champion Hanni Wenzel and her husband, 1982 downhill world champ Harti Weirather, made some history of her own Tuesday, capturing gold in GS at the 2006 Alpine Junior World Championships.

‘I can’t believe it’ explained an exuberant Weirather, ‘After skiing out in super G, I didn’t expect much for the rest of the week. … I [just] focused on skiing like I do in training, and things worked out well.’

The 16-year-old Weirather, who was fifth in the March 3 downhill, represented Lichtenstein at the Torino Olympic Games, but she raced only super G and downhill, and she was hardly among the gold medal favorites in giant slalom. Weirather has spent most of her time on the Europa Cup circuit this season, and though she’s had a few top-five finishes in speed events, she’s only finished in the top 30 on four occasions.

Austria’s Anna Fenninger, on the other hand, has been a dominant force at Europa Cup tech events all year, often finishing as much or more than three seconds ahead of Weirather. The roles were reversed on Tuesday, and Fenninger managed only ninth place, more than two seconds back of Weirather’s pace.

After her super G win, Fenninger intimated that she expected to win GS, so she was likely disappointed with her giant slalom result. But not all was lost for the young Austrian phenom, as Fenninger’s ninth was easily good enough to make her the overall champion at these Junior World Championships. At sixteen years old, she’ll likely get three more chances to win a World Juniors GS gold.

Germany’s Carolin Fernsebner skied the second fastest run of the afternoon and jumped into the sliver medal position for the day.

Eva-Maria Brem, Fenninger’s teammate on the Austrian B team, raced to bronze, a bright spot in what she deemed an otherwise lackluster season. Brem attributed the problems she’s faced this season, in part, to the hyper-competitive dynamic on the Austrian team, much like compatriot Michael Sablatnik did after his gold medal performance in the super G on March 4.

“My season hasn’t been that great this year,” said Brem. “I’ve been progressing well in training but I often make mistakes in races… It’s both an advantage and a disadvantage to be on the Austrian team, because we always have to fight to keep our spot.”

Staring bib 33, Megan McJames was the fastest American, finishing 18th on the day. McJames put her head through a panel on the first run when she tried to pinch off a turn on the technical bottom section of the final pitch. The mistake was costly, but she made the flip and put herself in a position to have an early start in the afternoon.

McJames seized the opportunity, and put down the third fastest second-run time. McJames, who will be a junior for another season, said that she was a little bit disappointed by her performance here, but that she learned things that will help her in the future.

“I think I could have done better in a couple of ways, but I learned a lot,” said McJames, adding, “Next year I’m gonna come back and kill it.”

U.S. Ski Team coach Eric Harlow echoed McJames’ optimism. “These girls haven’t had much experience racing in Europe at this level,” said Harlow. “But they learned a lot here, and we’ll definitely come back and score a lot more points next season.”

The world juniors conclude on March 8 with a Nation’s Cup Dual at Le Relais.

Women’s giant slalom
Junior World Championships
Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec
March 7, 2006

1. WEIRATHER Tina [LIE]1:12.07 1:10.36 2:22.43
2. FERNSEBNER Carolin [GER]1:13.57 1:10.15 2:23.72
3. BREM Eva-Maria [AUT]1:12.59 1:11.17 2:23.76
4. ROBNIK Mateja [SLO]1:12.57 1:11.23 2:23.80
5. BARIOZ Taina [FRA]1:13.48 1:10.45 2:23.93
6. REBENSBURG Viktoria [GER]1:13.22 1:10.94 2:24.16
7. BERTRAND Olivia [FRA]1:13.17 1:11.13 2:24.30
8. BERTHOD Pascale
1:13.50 1:10.98 2:24.48
9. FENNINGER Anna [AUT]1:13.42 1:11.08 2:24.50
10. PIETILAE-HOLMNER Maria [SWE] 1:12.74 1:11.84 2:24.58

For a link to complete results, click here.