Are: Notebook: Meissnitzer targets one more medal

Alexandra Meissnitzer will get at least one more chance at winning another major championship medal.

ARE, Sweden — Alexandra Meissnitzer will get at least one more chance at winning another major championship medal.
    Meissnitzer was the final skier named to Austria's team for Sunday's super G race, the opening women's event of the World Championships.
    ''It's emotional because I just found out 30 minutes ago,'' Meissnitzer said Friday. ''Super G is my best event but I haven't been having the best season so I'm glad to make it.''
    World Cup super G leader Renate Goetschl, Nicole Hosp and Christine Sponring were also named to the team. Maria Holaus, who posted her first World Cup podium finish in a downhill at San Sicario, Italy last weekend, was left out.
    ''I'm happy for Alexandra. I'll get my chance in downhill,'' Holaus said.
    Meissnitzer, who will likely retire at the end of this season, won the super G at the 1999 worlds in Vail, Colorado and took bronze at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and last year's Torino Games. Her best World Cup finish this season was fourth in Reiteralm, Austria, in December.
    ''Meissnitzer has also had great results throughout her career. Her biggest advantage was experience,'' Austria women's head coach Herbert Mandl said. ''I think she's very focused.''
    One more medal would be the perfect ending to Meissnitzer's championship career.
    ''That would be perfect. I just hope the weather is good and the conditions are fair for everyone,'' Meissnitzer said.
    GIANT FIELD REDUCED: Giant slalom competitors will need to go through a qualifying phase for the first time at an alpine World Championship.
    The top 50 skiers in the World Cup Start List — rankings based on World Cup results over the last 365 days — who are entered in the championship race will qualify automatically for the final. The rest will go through qualifying, with the best 25 advancing to the final — meaning a maximum of 75 skiers will be entered for the gold medal race.
    The International Ski Federation decided to hold qualifying because more than 140 skiers entered the competition.
    ''With this number of racers — without qualifying — automatically for the last ones skiing down the run, the conditions are no longer acceptable,'' FIS President Gian Franco Kasper said. ''This gives the skiers from the smaller nations a chance to compete on better snow.''
    The qualifying race is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 12 with the giant slalom final two days later.
    MORE REST FOR ROCCA: Still bothered by a sore knee, Giorgio Rocca will skip the combined race at the worlds and focus exclusively on the slalom.
    Rocca took the bronze medal in combined at the last worlds in Bormio, Italy, two years ago and was fifth at last year's Torino Olympics.
    ''The downhill course at Are is difficult and unfortunately I have to pull out because it's more important to stay fresh for the slalom,'' said Rocca, who has struggled this season with a knee problem.
    The combined is composed of one downhill leg and a single slalom run staged the same day. The downhill in Are is notorious for its big jumps.
    Rocca won the opening five slaloms on the World Cup circuit last season but hasn't won a race since. He crashed out in the Olympic race on home snow where he was considered a strong favorite.
    The men's slalom is scheduled for Feb. 17. Rocca is training at home in Livigno, Italy on a course made to simulate the one in Are.
    MISERABLE MICHAEL: Michael Walchhofer lashed out at Austria's head coach after being left off the squad's super G team.
    Coach Toni Giger overlooked Walchhofer in favor of Fritz Strobl after a qualifying session on Thursday, even though the 2005 World Championships silver medalist was quickest in both runs.
    ''Why did we have this qualifying when the result don't count,'' Walchhofer said.
    Hermann Maier and Mario Scheiber already had locked up two of Austria's four spots. Strobl and Christoph Gruber were given the last two after the qualifying session.
    Giger argued that Strobl had better super G World Cup results this season and that Walchhofer's margin of victory in qualifying was insufficient.
    ''I have to forget this super G and concentrate on the downhill,'' Walchhofer said while killing time in a bakery next to the team's hotel. ''I'm going to relax the next two days and test some skis, and maybe find the world champion skis.''

— The Associated Press