European Report: USST's Friedman fastest in final training run at Kvitfjell

European Report: USST’s Friedman fastest in final training run at Kvitfjell{mosimage}Bryon Friedman was fastest in Friday’s third and final downhill training run going into Saturday’s downhill World Cup at Kvitfjell, Norway.

Friedman covered the 1994 Olympic downhill course in 1:45.39, well ahead of runner-up Michael Walchhoffer of Austria, at 1:45.58. World Cup overall challenger Benjamin Raich was fifth as the Austrians had the five fastest runs after Friedman.

Hermann Maier was seventh while downhill points leader Stephan Eberharter was 13th at 1:46.12. Daron Rahlves was the next-best American at 1:46.36 while World Cup leader Bode Miller was 27th at 1:46.80.

Kvitfjell, Norway

Downhill Training Run 3

March 5, 2004

1. Bryon Friedman (U.S.) 1:45.39

2. Michael Walchhoffer (Austria) 1:45.58

3. Fritz Strobl (Austria) 1:45.59

4. Andreas Schifferer (Austria) 1:45.70

5. Benjamin Raich (Austria) 1:45.71

6. Marc Bottollier-Lasquin (France) 1:45.75

7. Hermann Maier (Austria) 1:45.80

8. David Poisson (France) 1:45.88

9. Marco Buechel (Liechtenstein) 1:45.92

10. Antoine Deneriaz (France) 1:45.93

Also:

12. Vincent Lavoie (Canada) 1:46.09

13. Stephan Eberharter (Austria) 1:46.12

19. Daron Rahlves (U.S.) 1:46.36

27. Bode Miller (U.S.) 1:46.80

32. Jakub Fiala (U.S.) 1:47.08

>> Kvitfjell speed events key to Miller’s hopes

American Bode Miller will have to ski the best speed races of his life this weekend if he is to thwart a challenge to his World Cup leadership from Hermann Maier, Reuters reported.

Miller, seeking to become the first American since Phil Mahre in 1983 to win the overall title, leads the standings with 1084 points, eight more than Austrian Maier with six races left in the season.

The 26-year-old from New Hampshire has never finished higher than 20th on the Kvitfjell course in Norway, where speed specialist Maier has been a regular on the podium.

Miller said he would not take any risks in Saturday’s downhill and Sunday’s super-G races that will set the scene for a showdown at the World Cup finals in Sestriere, Italy, from March 10-14.

“I don’t take risks, I just ski the same all the time, I’ve been in the top five in the downhill before,” Miller told Reuters. “And I’m always looking to win.”

Four of the six races left are speed events where three-time overall champion Maier has the advantage. Miller’s best World Cup downhill finish was fifth in Bormio in 2002 and his best this season was seventh in Kitzbuehel.

Miller, runner-up to Austrian Stephan Eberharter last year in the overall standings, is one of only four racers to score points this season in each of alpine skiing’s four disciplines.

But Maier, seeking to crown a stunning return after almost losing a leg in a motorcycle accident in 2001, is not the only Austrian breathing down Miller’s neck.

Returning to form after a back injury last month, Eberharter was third fastest in training runs on Wednesday and Thursday and could clinch the downhill title at Kvitfjell. He has 671 points to Maier’s 508.

Eberharter, 34, is fourth in the overall standings with 961 points behind slalom specialist Benjamin Raich, who has 999.

Miller said Kvitfjell held no special charm even though Americans have often done well there. Tommy Moe won the 1994 Olympic title on the course and teammate Daron Rahlves scored a maiden World Cup win in 2000.

The Norwegian crowd will be without local favorites Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Andre Aamodt, both of whom are injured. In their absence, the main hope for Norway is Bjarne Solbakken, who won a super G in December at Beaver Creek, Colorado, and is 13th in the overall standings.

— Reuters

>> Paerson ready for crown

Anja Paerson will arrive in Sestriere for next week’s World Cup Finals with her coronation as queen of women’s alpine skiing appearing a mere formality, Reuters reported.

The Swede has already wrapped up the slalom and giant slalom titles this season and, barring a drastic loss of form or a heroic showing by Austria’s Renate Goetschl, the overall title appears to be in her pocket as well.

If, as expected, she gains the points required to become the first Swedish woman to win the overall title since Pernilla Wiberg in 1997, it would complete a meteoric rise since she became the youngest winner in the women’s World Cup as a 17-year-old at Mammoth Mountain, California, in 1999.

Still only 22, Paerson has already added another 20 World Cup victories since then in slalom and giant slalom.

Ten of those have come in this incredible season. The only other women to win 10 times in a season are Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell, Swiss Vreni Schneider and Croatia’s Janica Kostelic, and Paerson is now being hailed as potentially one of the sport’s all-time greats.

Record World Cup winner Ingemar Stenmark, who like Paerson hails from the Swedish town of Tarnaby, even thinks she has a chance to beat his record tally of 86 race victories gathered between 1975 and 1989.

“I am not sure that my record is unbeatable,” Stenmark, who won three consecutive overall titles from 1976 to 1978, recently told the Swedish daily Aftonbladet. “You have to remember that Anja soon might be winning in speed events as well. I only knew how to race slalom and giant slalom. I think that she could take the record but it will probably take a few years.”

Paerson suffered a rare blip in Levi, Finland, last weekend when she failed to make the podium in two technical races.

It kept alive Goetschl’s hopes of repeating her 2000 World Cup overall success but the Austrian knows she will have to win both speed events in Sestriere and hope that Pearson, who plans to ski the super G, messes up spectacularly in her favored technical events.

Sestriere, keen to put on a good show ahead of its role as the main ski venue at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, will host women’s and men’s downhills on Wednesday, and super Gs on Thursday followed by a weekend of giant slaloms and slaloms.

Goetschl, who trails Pearson by 173 points in the overall competition, will be pre-occupied with clinching the downhill and super G titles after a consistent season in the speed events.

In eight downhills she has finished off the podium only once and took victories in Veysonnaz and St Moritz. She has had three wins in super G, most recently in Are, Sweden.

Only Germany’s Hilde Gerg can deny her the downhill crown, while Gerg and France’s Carole Montillet are the only realistic challengers in super G.

If, or more likely when, Paerson is confirmed the 2004 champions, the celebrations may be tempered by the absence of Kostelic, her most feared rival.

Last year’s world championships in St Moritz, when the Croatian skier won two golds to Paerson’s one, appeared to herald a fierce battle for supremacy in the sport.

Sadly Kostelic, a smooth technician compared to the powerfully aggressive Paerson, has been struck by injury and thyroid problems and has not raced all season.

If she returns to the peak of her powers next season, Paerson’s dominance will be seriously threatened and ski fans could look forward to a contest across all four of the sport’s disciplines.

— Reuters

>> Racing This Weekend: Men’s downhill Saturday and super G on Sunday, Kivtfjell, Norway … Parallel GS men’s and women’s snowboard Friday, snowboardercross Saturday, Mt. Bachelor, Oregon … Moguls men’s and women’s finals Saturday (replaces Bosco Gurin), dual moguls Sunday, Airolo, Switzerland … Cross-country men’s and women’s sprint qualifying and finals Friday, men’s and women’s team sprint Saturday, women’s 10km C, men’s 15km C on Sunday, all Lahti, Finland … Ski jumping team K116 on Saturday (night event), K116 on Sunday, Lahti, Finland … Nordic combined s
print K116/7.5km on Saturday, Gundersen K116/15.0km on Sunday, Lahti, Finland