Bormio: Vonn closer to title; Riesch wins SG globe

BORMIO, Italy — American Lindsey Vonn finished second in the World Cup Finals super G on Thursday, taking a giant step toward clinching the overall title. Her closest pursuer, Maria Riesch of Germany, captured the super G globe with a sixth-place finish in the season’s final super G.
    Fabienne Suter of Switzerland won the race in 1:19.48, with Vonn the runner-up, 0.26 seconds behind. Vonn added 40 points to her lead over Riesch, and is now 197 points ahead with just two races remaining and 200 points to be won. Riesch would have to win both races and see Vonn finish out of the points in both. Nicole Hosp of Austria is out of the running for the overall, finishing 11th in Thursday’s race.
    Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria made it to the podium in her final World Cup race, and was mobbed in the finish by teammates and coaches, who showered her with champagne and handed her a huge bouquet of flowers. Meissnitzer, who had previously announced her retirement, finished third, in 1:19.85.

BORMIO, Italy — American Lindsey Vonn finished second in the World Cup Finals super G on Thursday, taking a giant step toward clinching the overall title. Her closest pursuer, Maria Riesch of Germany, captured the super G globe with a sixth-place finish in the season’s final super G.
    Fabienne Suter of Switzerland won the race in 1:19.48, with Vonn the runner-up, 0.26 seconds behind. Vonn added 40 points to her lead over Riesch, and is now 197 points ahead with just two races remaining and 200 points to be won. Riesch would have to win both races and see Vonn finish out of the points in both. Nicole Hosp of Austria is out of the running for the overall, finishing 11th in Thursday’s race.
    Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria made it to the podium in her final World Cup race, and was mobbed in the finish by teammates and coaches, who showered her with champagne and handed her a huge bouquet of flowers. Meissnitzer, who had previously announced her retirement, finished third, in 1:19.85.
    Vonn is now on the verge of her first World Cup overall title, which would be the first for an American woman since Tamara McKinney won in 1983. “There are only three points left,” Vonn said following the race. “I had a great day today, and I finally put in a good super G. Perfect timing, I must say. … I made a couple of mistakes but it was a solid performance, I think.”
    Vonn said that after the last downhill of the season was cancelled on Wednesday, “I knew I had to capitalize today. I didn’t want to go into the tech races having a lot of pressure. Now I just have to go out there in slalom and GS and ski relaxed and,” she paused before continuing, “hopefully get three points.”
     Of the course, which had been too soft to run the downhill the previous day, Vonn said, “It was pretty tough conditions out there, it was really soft snow.” She felt she had faster skis than in other recent super G’s, and said “we changed around a bit today.” Said husband and chief advisor Thomas Vonn, “We changed around some stuff and it worked. And Lindsey executed the way she needed to. She has been struggling this year in super G and we finally found something that seemed to work for her.”
    Riesch won her second discipline crown this season, having previously captured the super-combined title. She had 374 points in the seven races. Elisabeth Goergl of Austria was second in the final standings at 326. Suter with her win Thursday, overtook Renate Goetschl of Austria and moved into third with 305 points.
    Of her relationship with Vonn, Riesch said, “We are traveling around together since we are 16 years old, since our first junior world championships, and although we are always rivals we have the same interests, and she has celebrated Christmas with my family for three years now.
    "We can separate it pretty good to be friends privately and also on the hill because when we are inspecting we are talking about the course and giving tips to each other because when you go down you have to be strong anyways. Of course you are fighting each other a little bit but always when someone is winning we are happy. I think that is good and also important for a friendship.”
    — Gary Black Jr. and Tim Etchells contributed to this report

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The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women's super G, Bormio, Italy, Feb. 13, 2008
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Suter, Stoeckli/Salomon/Atomic
2 Vonn (Kildow), Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
3 Meissnitzer, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
4 Styger, Volkl/Lange/Marker
5 Goergl, Head/Head/Head
6 Riesch, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
7 Mancuso, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
8 Zettel, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Lindell-Vikarby, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9 VanderBeek, Volkl/Lange/Marker

Women's Super G, Bormio, Italy, March 13, 2008. … It is the 33rd race of the original 38 race women's World Cup schedule. … Three races have been canceled, a slalom and GS at Zwiesel and the downhill at Bormio. … It is the seventh and final women's super G of the season. … It is the 44th World Cup race at Bormio, the sixth super G and the third women's super G.   
    It is the second career World Cup win and second of the season for Fabienne Suter. … She also won the Sestriere SG Feb. 10, giving her two consecutive wins in the discipline. … Ten of her 16 career scoring results have come this season.
    It is the 31st career World Cup podium for Lindsey Vonn. … Her ninth in super G. … It is her tenth podium of the season. … and first of the season in super G.
    It is the 44th career World Cup podium for Alexandra Meissnitzer and her final World Cup race. … It is her only podium of the season, though she had finished fourth in two super G's, at Lake Louise Dec. 2 and Sestriere Feb. 10.
    It is the 11th top seven result of the season for Julia Mancuso. … Three of them coming in SG. … It is her 66th career World Cup top 10. … It is the seventh top 10 of the season for Kelly VanderBeek. … and second in SG the others coming in DH. … She has 17th career top 10 results. … Stacey Cook, in 13th, matches her best result of the season, also scored in comb
ined at St Anton Dec. 22 and in SG at Cortina Jan. 20. … She had four better results for her career. … Emily Brydon collected the last available points for the race in 15th. … It is her 17th scoring result of the season.
    Winning margin is .26 of a second. … Top 11 are within a second. … Entire field of 26 finishers within two seconds. … Lindsey Vonn leads the overall standings 1343-1146 over Maria Riesch (6th in race). … She needs to finish 15th or better in either of the final two races to win the title. … Riesch needs to win both the GS and slalom. … Nicole Hosp is third at 1109 and cannot win the title. … Riesch wins the super G title 374-326 over Elisabeth Goergl. … Fabienne Suter closes to third at 305. … Emily Brydon in fifth is the top North American with 270pts. … Vonn, in sixth is top American with 262pts.

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	21	515766	SUTER Fabienne	1985	SUI	1:19.48	0.00
2	15	537544	VONN Lindsey	1984	USA	1:19.74	3.37
3	10	55212	MEISSNITZER Alexandra	1973	AUT	1:19.85	4.79
4	11	515170	STYGER Nadia	1978	SUI	1:20.15	8.68
5	19	55576	GOERGL Elisabeth	1981	AUT	1:20.23	9.72
6	18	206001	RIESCH Maria	1984	GER	1:20.27	10.24
7	17	537545	MANCUSO Julia	1984	USA	1:20.36	11.40
8	6	55838	ZETTEL Kathrin	1986	AUT	1:20.39	11.79
9	12	505632	LINDELL-VIKARBY Jessica	1984	SWE	1:20.40	11.92
9	2	106402	VANDERBEEK Kelly	1983	CAN	1:20.40	11.92
11	9	55690	HOSP Nicole	1983	AUT	1:20.41	12.05
12	16	55069	GOETSCHL Renate	1975	AUT	1:20.48	12.96
13	1	537582	COOK Stacey	1984	USA	1:20.49	13.09
14	22	505483	PAERSON Anja	1981	SWE	1:20.52	13.48
15	20	105997	BRYDON Emily	1980	CAN	1:20.67	15.42
16	14	515560	SCHILD Martina	1981	SUI	1:20.75	16.46
17	3	205218	REBENSBURG Viktoria	1989	GER	1:20.89	18.27
18	7	155415	ZAHROBSKA Sarka	1985	CZE	1:20.92	18.66
19	4	55590	SCHILD Marlies	1981	AUT	1:20.94	18.92
20	24	515573	AUFDENBLATTEN Fraenzi	1981	SUI	1:21.03	20.09
21	23	195671	JACQUEMOD Ingrid	1978	FRA	1:21.10	20.99
22	8	55750	FISCHBACHER Andrea	1985	AUT	1:21.20	22.29
23	25	565243	MAZE Tina	1983	SLO	1:21.21	22.42
24	5	295136	CECCARELLI Daniela	1975	ITA	1:21.25	22.94
25	27	55539	BERGER Silvia	1980	AUT	1:21.28	23.33
26	26	495318	RUIZ CASTILLO Carolina	1981	SPA	1:21.46	25.66

 

Official timekeeper

Did not finish 1st run : JANYK Britt (CAN)

Overall Standings:

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				ALL			DH			SL			GS			SG			KB
	Name	Nation		rank	pts		rank	pts		rank	pts		rank	pts		rank	pts		rank	pts
	VONN Lindsey	USA		1	1343		1	755		41	22		15	104		6	262		2	200
	RIESCH Maria	GER		2	1146		9	224		8	249		25	39		1	374		1	260
	HOSP Nicole	AUT		3	1109		19	123		2	465		6	217		10	222		9	82
	GOERGL Elisabeth	AUT		4	1037		11	215		41	22		2	379		2	326		8	95
	SCHILD Marlies	AUT		5	980		15	156		1	540		12	129		25	49		5	106
	PAERSON Anja	SWE		6	973		4	331		13	118		13	118		7	246		3	160
	MANCUSO Julia	USA		7	938		7	282		28	63		4	253		8	238		6	102
	GOETSCHL Renate	AUT		8	731		2	448								4	283
	POUTIAINEN Tanja	FIN		9	704					3	452		5	252
	KARBON Denise	ITA		10	619					29	59		1	560
	JANYK Britt	CAN		11	570		3	390					55	2		13	178
	BRYDON Emily	CAN		12	546		10	218								5	270		12	58
	JACQUEMOD Ingrid	FRA		13	536		8	228					10	160		24	50		7	98
	ZETTEL Kathrin	AUT		14	498					9	192		8	189		23	57		11	60
	STYGER Nadia	SUI		15	474		6	303								14	171
	VANDERBEEK Kelly	CAN		16	445		5	323								17	122
	ZAHROBSKA Sarka	CZE		17	443					5	332		21	63		29	34		31	14
	ZUZULOVA Veronika	SVK		18	431					4	421		41	10
	MOELGG Manuela	ITA		19	373					17	94		3	279
	FISCHBACHER Andrea	AUT		20	360		25	99		52	5		27	26		12	198		21	32
	SUTER Fabienne	SUI		21	357		35	36					35	16		3	305
	SCHILD Martina	SUI		22	354		16	153								11	201
	HOLAUS Maria	AUT		23	337		12	205								16	132
	MEISSNITZER Alexandra	AUT		24	321		28	81					36	14		9	226
	BORSSEN Therese	SWE		25	316					6	303		38	13
	HOELZL Kathrin	GER		26	300					19	93		7	207
	MAZE Tina	SLO		27	287		18	125					30	24		19	98		17	40
	AUFDENBLATTEN Fraenzi	SUI		28	280		14	160								18	111		34	9
	COSTAZZA Chiara	ITA		29	265					7	265
	PIETILAE-HOLMNER Maria	SWE		30	255					14	111		11	144