San Sicario: Goetschl wins, Kildow 2nd in super G

Lindsey Kildow finished second Friday in a World Cup super G on the Olympic speed course where she crashed in downhill training last February and was hospitalized overnight before returning to race. Julia Mancuso was eighth and two other U.S. skiers finished in the top 30 behind Austrian Renate Goetschl.
    Goetschl won in 1 minute, 24.90 seconds with Kildow second in 1:24.99. Stacey Cook was 26th and Kaylin Richardson 27th.

SAN SICARIO, Italy — Lindsey Kildow finished second Friday in a World Cup super G on the Olympic speed course where she crashed in downhill training last February and was hospitalized overnight before returning to race. Julia Mancuso was eighth and two other U.S. skiers finished in the top 30 behind Austrian Renate Goetschl.
    Using the Atomic skis of retired Austrian Michaela Dorfmeister, Goetschl won in 1 minute, 24.90 seconds for her 43rd World Cup victory, with Kildow second in 1:24.99.
    "It’s a great success for me because the course conditions here don’t really suit my style normally," said Goetschl. "The slope itself is not so challenging but I guess I had some really fast skis today. I gave my best and it was necessary to beat Lindsey Kildow, who is such a perfect glider. The weather was beautiful and it was fun skiing as fast as possible."   
    Kildow agreed it was great to be able to let the skis run on a beautiful day, particularly after racing in marginal conditions most of January. "I’m satisfied with this second place," she said. "It’s good for my moral. The run was fine, I could really let my skis go. I hope the weather will remain so beautiful so we can have an interesting race tomorrow."
    Both skiers indicated they looked forward to the challenges of racing each other the rest of the weekend, with a downhill and another super G scheduled at the Olympic site.
    "I’m having an unbelievable season, I have done much better than expected so far,” said Goetschl, who has a strong chance to improve her personal record of six wins in a season set during her outstanding 2000 and 2004 seasons. Three years ago she finished on the podium 13 times, placing second in the Overall standings behind Anja Paerson.
    "I feel so confident and relaxed now that I really can let it go, I don’t need to think about my lines or my tactics. A lot of racers can do well on this kind of course so it’s not so easy to win. I had a great time at the jumps which are fun. I was also very aggressive at the bottom where I chose a very direct line."
    Kildow wasn't chalking up Goetschl's win to equipment alone. ''Maybe it has got something to do with it. But I don't think it was my skis that made the difference. I think I could have skied faster,'' said Kildow, who uses Rossignols. ''I have an awesome service man — Niclas Cronsell, who used to work with Pernilla Wiberg. I feel really comfortable about my equipment.''
    Christine Sponring of Austria was third, 0.90 out, for only the second podium of her career after a second-place finish in a slalom in Copper Mountain, Colorado, five seasons ago. A silver medal winner in combined at the 2001 Worlds at St Anton, Sponring was picked by her coaches for this race after her success in a FIS Super-G earlier this month. She seriously injured her knee a couple of years ago but she can now dream to compete at the Worlds in Are next week.
    Mancuso's eighth ended her streak of five straight podiums. She still picked up points on the two women ahead of her Austria's Marlies Schild and Nicole Hosp in the overall World Cup standings. Hosp finished 11th and Schild was 18th.
    Schild leads the overall standings with 894 points, Hosp is second with 852 and Mancuso is third with 826. Goetschl is fourth with 821 points.
    Goetschl has now won three of the four super G's this season and holds a 140-point lead in the discipline standings over Hosp with three super G's remaining this season.
    Americans Stacey Cook and Kaylin Richardson finished 26th and 27th.

"Revenge" for Kildow
    Kildow, who raced next after Goetschl in the 25-degree sunshine, had the fastest time into the midsection but lost three-tenths and a shot at what would have been her fourth win of the season as the race was a pick up from Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria.
    "I'm really happy with this one. It's sort of a revenge for me," Kildow said, referring to her downhill training crash almost a year ago at the Olympics. One of the pre-Games favorites in DH, she spent the night in the hospital, but came back to race and finished eighth. She later won the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award, an honor voted on by American fans, fellow Team USA athletes, U.S. alumni Olympians and members of the media for best representing the Olympic spirit. This month, she crashed in Zauchensee and again last week in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, so this also was a needed pick-me-up.
    "The last couple of weeks have been hard, so this was really good for my confidence going into worlds [Feb. 3-18 in Are, Sweden] … and, yeah, with two more [speed] races here this weekend, it's given me some good confidence. The more you race on a hill, the more you get to know it," she said.
    She and DH/SG head coach Alex Hoedlmoser were at a loss to pinpoint where she lost the lead. "It's really hard to find a tenth here or there. Lindsey skied the top really, really well and coming through a jump at the top she may have closed the door a little too much, gone a little too straight … maybe … but there are so many turns where you can lose a tenth, or win a tenth," he said.
    "This was good, proving to myself I can be fast on this hill," she said. "I know I could last year but with my crash, I didn't get to show it. Maybe this is my time …
    "I thought I skied pretty well the whole way. It was a fine line. You don't want to over-ski it," she said. "I'll have to look closely at the video to see where I lost that time, to see what was going on."
    She agrees with Goetschl that the course, which had manmade bumps and terrain changes installed for the Olympics — and then softened after the Games moved on — isn't the hardest on the women's tour, but it does have nice flow.
    "I think it flows a lot better. They didn't put any artificial terrain in there like they did for the Olympics, so it's more safe. In general, it's a pretty easy hill, and I think the super G course is really fun. It has these nice rolls and in the sun today, it was perfect — now that we finally have winter. The snow was awesome," Kildow said.
    With two in the top 10 and four in the top 30, everyone in the top 35, Hoedlmoser said the U.S. women skied well. "If this is a technical hill [steeps, tighter turns, not so much gliding], like Zauchensee or Cortina, Julia can win those races, but she needs rockets on this hill. If she has a perfect run, she has a chance to be on the podium.
    "But she told me she's totally cool [with the top-three streak ending]. She said, 'You can't win 'em all' or be on the podi
um all the time," he said. "Julia's realistic. She had a good run and she knows it …
    "Kaylin and Stacey had good runs, too. 'Clarky' didn't ski the top so good but she was the only one to make time on the bottom … and Libby said she felt it was a good run. With the flats, though, it's hard to pick up speed once you lose it."
    The women run a downhill Saturday and another super G Sunday before heading to the World Championships. All six U.S. women will be racing in Are.

— Manuèle Lang, USSA and The Associated Press contributed to this report

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THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women's super G, San Sicario, Italy, Jan. 26, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Goetschl, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Kildow, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
3 Sponring, Head/Tecnica/Tyrolia
4 Janyk, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
5 VanderBeek, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
6 Aufdenblatten, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
7 Meissnitzer, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
8 Mancuso, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
9 Fanchini, Dynastar/Lange/Look
10 Bent, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

 Women's super G, San Sicario, Italy, Jan. 26, 2007. … The race is rescheduled from Zauchensee. … It is the 22nd race of the women's 37-event World Cup schedule. … The fourth of seven scheduled super G's.
    It is the 43rd career win for Renate Goetschl. … Good for sixth best all-time. … It is her 16th career SG win. … Matching Katja Seizinger for the women's all-time mark and behind only Hermann Maier's mark of 23. … It is her fifth win of the season. … One behind leader Marlies Schild. … It is her third SG win in four held this season. … The placing provides some redemption for Goetschl as her worst Olympic showing was in SG on this hill last season in 26th, her only non-top-10 Olympic result in three Olympiads.
    It is the 20th career podium for Lindsey Kildow. … Her seventh in SG. … This is the course she crashed on so dramatically in an Olympic training run. … It is her seventh podium of the season, five of them coming in December, two in January.
    It is the second career World Cup podium for Christine Sponring. … Her first since Nov. 11, 2001, when she was second in slalom at Copper Mountain, Colorado. … It is her first Cup super G placing in any scoring position. … Sponring did win a silver medal in combined at the 2001 World Championships.
    It is a career-best result for Britt Janyk, bettering two fifth-place results from Are, in combined Feb. 3, 2002, and in GS March 6, 2003. … Her best previous SG result had been 11th at Lake Louise earlier this season. … It is the third career top five for Kelly VanderBeek. .. All of them in SG. … It is her second SG top five of the season. … It is the 30th career top eight-placing for Julia Mancuso. … And her seventh-best career SG result. … It is the 11th time she has been top eight this season. … The placing broke a string of five consecutive podiums. … It is the 35th career SG scoring result for Emily Brydon. … Her 12th score of the season. … It is the fourth career score in SG for Stacey Cook. … Her third of the season. … It is the ninth career scoring result for Kaylin Richardson. … Her sixth of the season. … It is her second score in SG.
    Marlies Schild (18th in race) maintains the World Cup overall standings lead 894-852 over Nicole Hosp (11th in race). … Mancuso is third overall at 826, Goetschl fourth at 821 and Kildow fifth at 659.  … Goetschl extends her lead in the super G standings 360-220 over Hosp. … Kildow is in third place at 210 and Mancuso fourth at 145. … Winning margin is .09 of a second. … Top six are within a second of winning time. … Top 14 within two seconds.

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San Sicario women's World Cup super G results

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	28	55069	GOETSCHL Renate	1975	AUT	1:24.90	0.00
2	29	537544	KILDOW Lindsey C	1984	USA	1:24.99	1.09
3	36	55691	SPONRING Christine	1983	AUT	1:25.80	10.92
4	2	106022	JANYK Britt	1980	CAN	1:25.83	11.28
5	23	106402	VANDERBEEK Kelly	1983	CAN	1:25.84	11.40
6	9	515573	AUFDENBLATTEN Fraenzi	198 1	SUI	1:26.06	14.07
7	30	55212	MEISSNITZER Alexandra	1973	AUT	1:26.11	14.68
8	26	537545	MANCUSO Julia	1984	USA	1:26.26	16.50
9	8	296729	FANCHINI Nadia	1986	ITA	1:26.36	17.71
10	33	505449	BENT Nike	1981	SWE	1:26.53	19.78
11	27	55690	HOSP Nicole	1983	AUT	1:26.54	19.90
12	11	295533	RECCHIA Lucia	1980	ITA	1:26.56	20.14
13	13	565243	MAZE Tina	1983	SLO	1:26.62	20.87
14	1	495318	RUIZ CASTILLO Carolina	1981	SPA	1:26.86	23.78
15	25	515170	STYGER Nadia	1978	SUI	1:26.92	24.51
16	44	206175	STECHERT Gina	1987	GER	1:26.93	24.63
16	37	196460	MARCHAND-ARVIER Marie	1985	FRA	1:26.93	24.63
18	14	55590	SCHILD Marlies	1981	AUT	1:26.94	24.75
19	15	195671	JACQUEMOD Ingrid	1978	FRA	1:26.96	24.99
19	10	206001	RIESCH Maria	1984	GER	1:26.96	24.99
21	24	&nbsp ;55750	FISCHBACHER Andrea	1985	AUT	1:27.10	26.69
22	47	515766	SUTER Fabienne	1985	SUI	1:27.13	27.05
22	6	55538	WIRTH Katja	1980	AUT	1:27.13	27.05
24	20	105997	BRYDON Emily	1980	CAN	1:27.20	27.90
25	42	515429	DUMERMUTH Monika	1977	SUI	1:27.27	28.75
26	32	537582	COOK Stacey J	1984	USA	1:27.33	29.48
27	35	537626	RICHARDSON Kaylin L	1984	USA	1:27.35	29.72
28	18	515560	SCHILD Martina	1981	SUI	1:27.45	30.94
29	41	296427	SCHNARF Johanna	1984	ITA	1:27.48	31.30
30	17	55596	WILHELM Kathrin	1981	AUT	1:27.54	32.03
31	7	225206	ALCOTT Chemmy	1982	GBR	1:27.61	32.88
32	22	536138	CLARK Kirsten L	1977	USA	1:27.70	33.97
32	19	55576	GOERGL Elisabeth	1981	AUT	1:27.70	33.97
34	12	536884	LUDLOW Libby	1981	USA	1:27.72	34.21
35	43	296008	MERIGHETTI Daniela	1981	ITA	1:27.76	34.70
36	49	196573	REVILLET Aurelie	1986	FRA	1:27.78	34.94
37	16	106056	SIMARD Genevieve	1980	CAN	1:27.99	37.49
38	39	565278	RABIC Urska	1985	SLO	1:28.05	38.22
39	34	296769	LONGHINI Hilary	1986	ITA	1:28.11	38.94
39	21	55539	BERGER Silvia	1980	AUT	1:28.11	38.94
41	40	206035	CHMELAR Fanny	1985	GER	1:28.30	41.25
42	38	195837	MATTEL Magda	1980	FRA	1:28.31	41.37
43	55	375018	COLETTI Alexandra	1983	MON	1:28.52	43.92
44	5	505632	LINDELL-VIKARBY Jessica	1984	SWE	1:28.73	46.47
45	48	565261	ROBNIK Petra	1984	SLO	1:28.96	49.26
46	46	295342	PUTZER Karen	1978	ITA	1:29.28	53.14
47	45	505260	HARGIN Janette	1977	SWE	1:29.34	53.87
48	53	255098	KRISTJANSDOTTIR Dagny L.	1980	ISL	1:29.51	55.93
49	54	425432	MUELLER Anne Marie	1980	NOR	1:30.26	65.03
50	50	106666	RUBENS Shona	1986	CAN	1:31.14	75.70
51	57	495683	TOMAS Mireia	1988	SPA	1:32.30	89.78

Did not start 1st run:
MAZZOTTI Lucia (ITA)

Did not finish 1st run:
LAWRENCE Sherry (CAN), HOLAUS Maria (AUT), BERTHOD Sylviane (SUI)

Disqualified 1st run:
FANCHINI Elena (ITA), CECCARELLI Daniela (ITA)

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Super G World Cup standings (After 4 of 7 races)
1. Renate Goetschl, Austria, 360 points.
2. Nicole Hosp, Austria, 220.
3. Lindsey Kildow, United States, 210.
4. Julia Mancuso, United States, 145.
5. Kelly VanderBeek, Canada, 123.
6. Martina Schild, Switzerland, 113.
7. Nadia Fanchini, Italy, 106.
8. Anja Paerson, Sweden, Sweden, 102.
9. Fraenzi Aufdenblatten, Switzerland, 95
10. Alexandra Meissnitzer, Austria, 93.
(tie) Kathrin Wilhelm, Austria, 93.
12. Britt Janyk, Canada, 81.
13. Silvia Berger, Austria, 72.
14. Emily Brydon, Canada, 71.
15. Genevieve Simard, Canada, 68.

Overall World Cup standings (After 22 of 37 races)
1. Marlies Schild, Austria, 894 points.
2. Nicole Hosp, Austria, 852.
3. Julia Mancuso, United States, 826.
4. Renate Goetschl, Austria, 821.
5. Lindsey Kildow, United States, 658.
6. Kathrin Zettel, Austria, 568.
7. Anja Paerson, Sweden, 529.
8. Tanja Poutiainen, Finland, 403.
9. Ingrid Jacquemod, France, 399.
(tie) Sarka Zahrobska, Czech Republic, 399.
11. Michaela Kirchgasser, Austria, 379.
12. Andrea Fischbacher, Austria, 300.
13. Therese Borssen, Sweden, 299.
14. Ana Jelusic, Croatia, 286.
15. Kelly VanderBeek, Canada, 276.