European Report: Hahnenkamm champ Eberharter hints at hanging around

European Report: Hahnenkamm champ Eberharter hints at hanging around{mosimage}No one knows when Stephan Eberharter’s hang-over wore off following Saturday’s melodramatic win in the Hahnenkamm downhill at Kitzbuehel, Austria, but the veteran racer hinted this might not be his last crack at downhill’s most feared course.

“The question begs, will I stop or will I return? I will decide in the summer if I still have the motivation to undergo the hard training,” Eberharter told Austrian radio.

The 34-year-old Eberharter almost retired at the end of last year’s successful campaign, when he won his second consecutive overall World Cup title. He was convinced to race one more year, but admittedly came into the season without being in top shape.

“I absolutely wanted to win at Kitzbuehel and I risked everything,” Eberharter said. “I was truly on fire. Either you win or you crash and lose everything. But it was worth the risk because this is what I wanted. It was one of the best runs of my life.”

With the victory, Eberharter shot to the top of the downhill standings and nudged into fifth and back into contention for the overall title.

“I’m back in business,” he said. “I feel great. Winning the overall last year was my big goal of the season. This season I didn’t have the same drive but now we’ll see what happens.”

>> Putzer pulls plug on season

Italy’s Karen Putzer has decided to scrap the remainder of the 2003-04 season due to a nagging injury in her right hip, Eurosport reported.

Putzer, 25, finished second overall last year behind Janica Kostelic, but has only competed in two giant slaloms so far this season. Putzer was sixth in the season-opener at Soelden, Austria, but missed the next month trying to overcome her injury. She then finished eighth in Alta Badia, Italy, in December.

Putzer isn’t expected to undergo surgery, preferring to rest the hip for the remainder of the season.

>> Ghedina might postpone retirement

Italian downhiller Kristian Ghedina told reporters he’s having second thoughts about retirement moments after pulling a “spread eagle” on the lower section of the Hahnenkamm downhill on Saturday.

Ghedina, 34, landed the move with grace to finish sixth in the race he won in 1998.

“My start to the season has been quite disappointing and I imagined that I had to do something special today, I thought it could well be my last run here,” Ghedina told Reuters. “But I’m not sure I would have done it had I known I could reach the podium. The time I lost doing this (the spread eagle) could have put me in third or fourth place. But I guess people enjoyed it a lot, which is what I wanted.”

Despite a string of injuries in recent years, Ghedina said he still feels the fire of competition and might extend his World Cup career one more season.

“I’m not sure that I will end my career this spring,” he said. “I’m still having a lot of fun and, if I can get back in shape, I may well continue. Originally, I aimed to compete at the 2005 Worlds at Bormio and the 2006 Olympics in Turin, but I have injured myself too often recently and I lost my momentum.

“My best years are over, yet I still feel much fire in me. Downhill racing is incredibly fascinating, especially when you compete on such a demanding slope in front of thousands of crazy spectators.”

>> Canadians take another blow

While the Canadians celebrated Thomas Grandi’s historic podium finish in Sunday’s slalom, the downhill team suffered another loss with Jeff Hume expected to be out at least a week after falling hard in Saturday’s downhill.

“For sure he will not ski next week. But whether it’s one, two or three weeks off we will have to wait and see. It is a good thing he is so physically strong. If he wasn’t he was he would have been a mess,” Canadian head coach Burkhard Schaffer told the AP. “But he’s had a concussion. He doesn’t remember everything.”

Schaffer said the 24-year-old will not start World Cup races in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Hume suffered a bruised chest and a concussion in a crash when he was knocked unconscious for approximately a minute and a half.

Later, he was able to walk off the course with the help of medics. Hume was flown to hospital in nearby St. Johann and underwent tests including a head scan, the AP reported.

Two of the team’s top downhillers, Erik Guay and Jan Hudek, are already out for the season with injuries.