St Moritz: Maze upsets Holaus for DH win

In improving conditions Slovene Tina Maze, skiing from the bottom of the start list for the women's World Cup downhill at St. Moritz, collected her first Cup win since the beginning of the 2006 season, and cut off Maria Holaus from the win Saturday.
    The podium was packed with newcomers. It was the first DH win for Maze, the second career DH podium for Holaus and just the fourth World Cup start for Europa Cup star Lara Gut, a 16 year old Swiss who shook up the status-quo with third place.
    Canadian Emily Brydon, who had won all the training runs, was fourth and Lindsey Vonn tied Elisabeth Goergl in fifth.
    Maze started 47th of 51 competitors and after a stretch that had resulted in eight DNF's from the 12 starters in front of her. Known for her abilities in GS, Maze rode a smooth ski to collect the win and snatch the win away from Holaus who needed consoling in the finish area.

In improving conditions Slovene Tina Maze, skiing from the bottom of the start list for the women's World Cup downhill at St. Moritz, collected her first Cup win since the beginning of the 2006 season, and cut off Maria Holaus from the win Saturday.
    The podium was packed with newcomers. It was the first DH win for Maze, the second career DH podium for Holaus and just the fourth World Cup start for Europa Cup star Lara Gut, a 16-year-old Swiss who shook up the status-quo with third place.
    Canadian Emily Brydon, who had won all the training runs, was fourth and Lindsey Vonn tied Elisabeth Goergl in fifth.
    Maze started 47th of 51 competitors and after a stretch that had resulted in eight DNF's from the 12 starters in front of her. Known for her abilities in GS, Maze rode a smooth ski to collect the win and snatch the win away from Holaus who needed consoling in the finish area.
    Maze took advantage of improved visibility and a fast course to win. Fog had been a problem early in the race, but the weather gradually cleared and Maze had intermittent sunshine during her run.
    "Of course I was a bit lucky with the weather," she allowed, "but that's the way this sport is and I am very happy."
    This winter, Maze could not race for almost a month in December because of back pains from an injured disc. "It was a day of surprises for everybody and especially for me," said Maze with tears in her eyes. "I was feeling in training that I was doing better in speed events, but to go for victory, especially in a downhill, looked a long way away. I'm really proud to be the first Slovenian woman to win a downhill. Especially because it was not an easy season, but I never lost hope. I hope it will help me regain momentum for the final part of the season."   
    The changing conditions of snow and visibility played with the nerves of both skiers and spectators. Before Maze stole the show, Swiss prodigy Gut had caused a major sensation, finishing 0.01 behind Austrian leader Maria Holaus for her first downhill race at the World level. Gut crashed and tumbled across the finish line to reach her first ever World Cup podium.
    "Crashing is a rather special way to climb on the podium, next time, I'll try to finish on my skis," said Gut. "I really didn't expect such a result, I'm more than happy."
    Gut said she was waiting for her good fortune to sink in. "This is my fourth World Cup race and already a podium finish," she said. "I haven't yet realized what this means."
    Lindsey Vonn knew exactly what fifth place meant for her. She committed two large errors at the half-way mark of the course, flew way off line and was lucky to pull it back together.
    "The light was really bad and it was bumpy," she said. "I tried to fight the whole way but you couldn't see anything. … We still have four downhills left," she added, indicating she was optimistic of matching the U.S. record of nine DH wins held by Picabo Street and Daron Rahlves. She has eight.

— Manuele Lang and The Associated Press contributed to this story 

The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women's Downhill, St Moritz, Switzerland, Feb. 2, 2008
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Maze, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
2 Holaus, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
3 Gut, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Brydon, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
5 Vonn, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5 Goergl, Head/Head/Head
7 Suter, Stoeckli/Salomon/Atomic
8 Stuffer, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Marchand-Arvier, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
10 Dumermuth, Fischer/Salomon/Tyrolia
 
Women's Downhill, St Moritz, Switzerland, Feb. 2, 2008. … It is the 24th race of the women's 38 event 2008 World Cup schedule. … It is the sixth of 10 scheduled downhills. … St Moritz also hosted races in December when it substituted for Val d'Isere where winds had scrubbed the upper course clean.
    It is the sixth career World Cup win for Tina Maze. … The first not coming in GS. … It is her first win since Oct. 22, 2005 when she beat Janica Kostelic for the opening win of the 2006 season. … It is just the sixth DH scoring result of her career and her first top 10 in the discipline. … It is just her third top 10 of the season, the others coming in super G. … She started 47th of 51.
    It is the third career World Cup podium for Maria Holaus. … Seven of her 12 scoring results have come this season. … She won the Cortina Super G Jan. 20 and was also third Jan. 27, 2007 in DH at SanSicario.
    It is just the fourth World Cup start and first scoring result for Lara Gut, a 16 year old who has four wins, a second and two thirds on the Europa Cup this January. … She started 32nd.
    It is the ninth career top four World Cup result for Emily Brydon. … Her fourth of the season. … She has two podiums this season – second in SG at St Moritz Dec. 16 and third in DH at Cortina Jan. 19. … She was also fourth in the Cortina SG Jan. 20. … It is the 42nd top five World Cup finish for Lindsey Vonn. … Her ninth of the season. … and her sixth of the season in six downhills held. … She had finished second in the previous DH at St Moritz held in December. …  It is the 21st scoring result of the season for Julia Mancuso in 24 races held. … She had been 10th in the previous DH at St Moritz in December. … It is the ninth scoring result of the season for Kelly VanderBeek. … She had been 22nd in the previous DH at St Moritz in December.
    The race represents the first DH top 10 finishes for Gut, Fabienne Suter and Verena Stuffer.
    Winning margin is .34 of a second. … Top sixth were within a half second. … Top 10 within a second and top 23 within two seconds. … Nicole Hosp (tied for 14th in race) maintains the lead in the World Cup overall standings 917
-818 over Lindsey Vonn. … Marlies Schild (23rd in race) is third overall with 759pts. … Maria Riesch is fourth and Julia Mancuso fifth. … Vonn controls the downhill standings 475-273 for Renate Goetschl (tied for 14th in race). … Britt Janyk (31st in race) is third at 264. … Holaus has climbed to fifth with 199pts.

Official timekeeper

Did not finish 1st run : MORLANS Leyre (SPA), AGUILANIU Aude (FRA), REBENSBURG Viktoria (GER), POLESCHUK Danielle (CAN), LUDLOW Libby (USA), DESFORGES Emilie (CAN), CASANOVA Carmen (SUI), COLETTI Alexandra (MON), SMITH Leanne (USA), SCHNARF Johanna (ITA), YURKIW Larisa (CAN), BENT Nike (SWE), PAERSON Anja (SWE), RIESCH Maria (GER), AUFDENBLATTEN Fraenzi (SUI)