Worlds: Vonn leads DH training; Riesch back on course

Val d’Isere, France – After a number of crashes and disqualifications in Wednesday’s ladies downhill training run, world championship organizers moved a gate or two for Thursday’s training. But if anything, this made the course slower and more technical.

World super G champion Lindsey Vonn found her line though, putting down the fastest time in training – 1 minute, 18.65 seconds – despite standing up for the final 200 meters of the run. Unlike Wednesday’s training, which brought sun and blue skies, the wind was blowing Thursday and a forecasted snowstorm began spitting flurries, which meant the training run was started lower on the course where the super G kicked off.
Val d’Isere, France – After a number of crashes and disqualifications in Wednesday’s ladies downhill training run, world championship organizers moved a gate or two for Thursday’s training. But if anything, this made the course slower and more technical.

World super G champion Lindsey Vonn found her line though, putting down the fastest time in training – 1 minute, 18.65 seconds – despite standing up for the final 200 meters of the run. Unlike Wednesday’s training, which brought sun and blue skies, the wind was blowing Thursday and a forecasted snowstorm began spitting flurries, which meant the training run was started lower on the course where the super G kicked off.

Vonn was on the DQ list in Wednesday’s run after skiing off course, but was her comfortable and confident self again in Thursday’s run.

“It was definitely tough with the flat light but I had a better time than yesterday,” she said. “I made all the gates, so im happy about that.”

France’s Marie Marchand-Arvier, who took silver in Tuesday’s super G,  finished the run .38 seconds behind Vonn in Thursday’s training and super G bronze medalist Andrea Fischbacher was .55 seconds back.

“It’s the same gates like yesterday, but they made some changes,” Fischbacher said. “It’s just one gate and you get a little bit slower now. It’s a bit more turny.”

Not many of the racers had much of anything good to say about the world championship course. German superstar Maria Riesch took a bad spill into the fence in Wednesday’s downhill training and despite a bruised spine, cut face, pulled knee and what must have been a fair amount of general soreness, managed to train again on Thursday. Like Anja Paerson and other top racers, she finished the run more than 2 seconds off the pace. But she said reaching the finish line on two feet was her key objective.

“My main goal for today was to come down healthy and check the line,” Riesch said. “I’m not injured seriously and i hope I can do better tomorrow. More the problem is getting confident again. I just tried to ski carefully. I thought, just ski down safe and don’t risk too much. I was pretty conservative in some sections but that was OK. You have to put this away from your mind and just concentrate on your run.”

Riesch hasn’t been the only racer to take a painful blow from the Val d’Isere speed course. Swedish racer and medal hopeful Jessica Lindell-Vikarby tore a knee ligament in Wednesday’s training and will be sidelined for the rest of the season.

“I think it’s too much,” Riesch said of the course. “For 70 percent of the girls, it’s too heavy and too much. I don’t know if a World Championship must be like this because people from Bulgaria and I don’t know where else are here and yeah, it’s really tough.”

Swiss racer Dominique Gisin, who recently won her first two World Cup races back-to-back in Cortina and Zauchensee, agreed the course is more difficult than what the field is used to on the World Cup. She too, went out in Wednesday’s training and finished later than would be expected in Thursday’s training but knows what she has to do to get the upper hand.

“Yeah, it’s a pretty tough course. It’s very steep, bumpy and hard,” she said. “But it’s fun. It’s something totally different. You have to ski with a lot of confidence and attitude. You have to take your heart in your hand and ski.”

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time
1	10	537544	VONN Lindsey	1984	USA	1:18.65
2	2	196460	MARCHAND-ARVIER Marie	1985	FRA	1:19.03
3	1	55750	FISCHBACHER Andrea	1985	AUT	1:19.17
4	17	516138	GUT Lara	1991	SUI	1:19.21
5	5	55576	GOERGL Elisabeth	1981	AUT	1:19.47
6	22	296473	SIORPAES Wendy	1985	ITA	1:19.90
7	7	106022	JANYK Britt	1980	CAN	1:19.99
8	15	105997	BRYDON Emily	1980	CAN	1:20.02
9	29	196573	REVILLET Aurelie	1986	FRA	1:20.26
10	36	55970	SCHMIDHOFER Nicole	1989	AUT	1:20.41
11	21	515849	DETTLING Andrea	1987	SUI	1:20.46
12	4	195671	JACQUEMOD Ingrid	1978	FRA	1:20.48
13	32	55838	ZETTEL Kathrin	1986	AUT	1:20.56
14	19	296008	MERIGHETTI Daniela	1981	ITA	1:20.58
15	31	55759	KIRCHGASSER Michaela	1985	AUT	1:20.60
16	26	495318	RUIZ CASTILLO Carolina	1981	SPA	1:20.64
17	8	515747	GISIN Dominique	1985	SUI	1:20.81
18	18	515766	SUTER Fabienne	1985	SUI	1:20.84
19	38	537582	COOK Stacey	1984	USA	1:20.85
20	14	515170	STYGER Nadia	1978	SUI	1:20.94
21	45	565315	ROBNIK Mateja	1987	SLO	1:21.00
22	3	565243	MAZE Tina	1983	SLO	1:21.19
23	41	225206	ALCOTT Chemmy	1982	GBR	1:21.23
24	42	565320	FERK Marusa	1988	SLO	1:21.27
25	39	296427	SCHNARF Johanna	1984	ITA	1:21.29
26	12	206001	RIESCH Maria	1984	GER	1:21.30
27	11	505483	PAERSON Anja	1981	SWE	1:21.56
28	20	55947	FENNINGER Anna	1989	AUT	1:21.67
29	27	55588	RUMPFHUBER Ingrid	1981	AUT	1:21.85
30	16	537545	MANCUSO Julia	1984	USA	1:22.03
31	44	515692	GRAND Rabea	1984	SUI	1:22.10
32	46	195972	AUBERT Sandrine	1982	FRA	1:22.24
33	13	106402	VANDERBEEK Kelly	1983	CAN	1:22.43
34	24	296431	STUFFER Verena	1984	ITA	1:22.66
35	23	206175	STECHERT Gina	1987	GER	1:22.69
36	37	538038	MARSHALL Chelsea	1986	USA	1:22.82
37	43	375018	COLETTI Alexandra	1983	MON	1:22.90
38	33	155415	ZAHROBSKA Sarka	1985	CZE	1:23.01
39	51	495615	MORLANS Leyre	1987	SPA	1:23.37
40	40	155563	KRIZOVA Klara	1989	CZE	1:23.55
41	50	505679	HANSDOTTER Frida	1985	SWE	1:23.59
42	49	155333	HRSTKOVA Lucie	1981	CZE	1:24.74
43	52	35089	SIMARI BIRKNER Macarena	1984	ARG	1:25.14
44	53	35079	SIMARI BIRKNER Maria Belen	1982	ARG	1:25.80
45	54	95050	KIRKOVA Maria	1986	BUL	1:28.86
46	55	65090	VAN BUYNDER Isabel	1991	BEL	1:29.39

 

Did not start 1st run: BRODNIK Vanja (SLO), YURKIW Larisa (CAN), RECCHIA Lucia (ITA)

Did not finish 1st run: FANCHINI Nadia (ITA)

Disqualified 1st run: GUTIERREZ Mireia (AND), MIKLOS Edith (ROU), DUMERMUTH Monika (SUI), ROLLAND Marion (FRA), GOETSCHL Renate (AUT)