Goetschl picks up fourth win of the season; Clark, in ninth, leads the way for U.S.

By Published On: June 3rd, 2004Comments Off on Goetschl picks up fourth win of the season; Clark, in ninth, leads the way for U.S.

Goetschl picks up fourth win of the season; Clark, in ninth, leads the way for U.S.Renate Goetschl won her fourth World Cup race of the season on Friday in a hard-fought super G in the Italian Dolomites, closing the gap on the overall leader Anja Paerson.

The 28-year-old Goetschl hurtled down the Olympia delle Tofane course in 1:10.59 to edge Germany’s Martina Ertl by 0.33 seconds. Ertl’s teammate Hilde Gerg, the most consistent skier on the women’s tour this season, was third in 1:11.02.

France’s Carole Montillet was fourth while Swiss Fraenzi Aufdenblatten equalled her career best finish with a fifth place.

The race was halted temporarily when Canada’s Genevieve Simard collided with a gate and crashed. Simard was 0.02 seconds behind the leader at the previous interval when her left leg went through a gate, causing her to crash and bruise her right hip and left shin, injuries that will keep her out of action for Saturday and Sunday’s downhill races, but don’t appear to threaten her season.

“It’s really good news nothing’s broken,” said Simard, who added she’s “walking like a snail” but happy to be on her own two feet. “The crash was scary — I was totally charging, even more than on Wednesday. I was kicking butt, seriously. It felt really nice skiing down, a real freefall — it was so easy. I feel like I’ve discovered a new limit of how fast I can go. I know I can be there, right at the top.”

The U.S. team had five skiers score points in the race, led by Kirsten Clark in ninth (1:11.77). Caroline Lalive tied for 12th, Libby Ludlow was 16th, Julia Mancuso 28th and Jonna Mendes 29th. Lindsey Kildow finished 43rd.

Kildow has a cut on her cheek from a fall she took at Veysonnaz last week. Mendes has been struggling in super G this season. The head coach for the American women, Patrick Riml, said that taking time off around Christmas may be the cause of her slump.

Clark and Lalive are now 10th and 11th in the super G World Cup standings.

“The snow is perfect and things are so tight, and you can’t afford even little mistakes,” said Riml. “It’s okay, five girls in the first 30 … okay. It was a really good result again for Libby — she’s really stepping up. Liner [Lalive] lost a second on the top for some reason — we’re going to analyze that one closely — and then skied very good through the middle and bottom, but you can’t lose that kind of time and make it up against this field …

“And Kirsten had such a little mistake at the top, skied so well in the middle and then another small mistake at the bottom. It’s all positive and we’re so close … but we can’t afford those little mistakes.”

Goetschl’s victory, her 10th in super G, comes just five days after injuring her knee in a fall in Veysonnaz, Switzerland, and helps her close the gap on overall World Cup leader Paerson.

“I’m so happy to win here,” said Goetschl, who won a downhill and super G in Cortina last season. “It’s hard when you have a race like that when you know you have to risk everything. After Sunday’s injury I didn’t know if I would be completely ready for this week but I feel so good on this hill, I really feel relaxed and confident.”

Goetschl said she was still not concerned about the overall title, despite trailing Sweden’s Paerson by the slender margin of 72 points. “I’m not thinking about the overall standings. I just want to do my job, get my confidence back after Sunday and to take it race by race,” she said.

Paerson, a technical specialist, has made radical improvements in the speed events this season and made her downhill debut in St. Moritz, but says expectations are way too high. “Everyone now expects so much from me in the speed events and I can’t really enjoy it anymore,” she said after finishing 14th. “I’m new to these races and people forget that my first downhill race was at St. Moritz just over a month ago. At least in my team nobody is bothering me about it and everything is calm. I am very relaxed about being leader but a lot is going to be decided in this next week.”

Alpine World Cup

Women’s Super G

Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

January 16, 2004


1. Renate Goetschl (Austria) 1:10.59

2. Martina Ertl (Germany) 1:10.92

3. Hilde Gerg (Germany) 1:11.02

4. Carole Montillet (France) 1:11.10

5. Fraenzi Aufdenblatten (Switzerland) 1:11.43

6. Melanie Suchet (France) 1:11.45

7. Maria Riesch (Germany) 1:11.51

8. Alexandra Meissnitzer (Austria) 1:11.71

9. Kirsten Clark (U.S.) 1:11.77

10. Nadia Styger (Switzerland) 1:11.89

11. Barbara Kleon (Italy) 1:12.16

12= Caroline Lalive (U.S.) 1:12.17

12= Lucia Recchia (Italy) 1:12.17

14. Anja Paerson (Sweden) 1:12.18

15. Silvia Berger (Austria)1:12.25

16= Emily Brydon (Canada) 1:12.28

16= Libby Ludlow (U.S.) 1:12.28

18. Michaela Dorfmeister (Austria) 1:12.29

19. Chimene Alcott (Britain) 1:12.30

20= Isolde Kostner (Italy) 1:12.31

20= Tanja Schneider (Austria) 1:12.31

22. Martina Lechner (Austria) 1:12.39

23. Petra Haltmayr (Germany) 1:12.40

24. Janette Hargin (Sweden) 1:12.41

25. Alexandra Coletti (Italy) 1:12.43

26. Brigitte Obermoser (Austria) 1:12.44

27. Mojca Suhadolc (Slovenia) 1:12.49

28. Julia Mancuso (U.S.) 1:12.51

29. Jonna Mendes (U.S.) 1:12.53

30. Katja Wirth (Austria) 1:12.60

Other North Americans:

41. Kelly Vanderbeek, CAN 1:13.12

42. Anne Marie LeFrancois, CAN 1:13.16

43. Lindsey Kildow, USA 1:13.18

DNF: Genevieve Simard, CAN

THE SCOOP

> by Hank McKee

Equipment, Women’s Super G

Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, January 16, 2004


Skier, skis/boots/bindings

1 Goetschl, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

2 Ertl, Rossignol/Nordica/Rossignol

3 Gerg, Volkl/Lange/Marker

4 Montillet, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

5 Aufdenblatten, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

6 Suchet, Dynastar/Lange/Look

7 Riesch, Head/Lange/Tyrolia

8 Meissnitzer, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker

9 Clark, Fischer/Salomon/Marker

10 Styger, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

The 18th of 36 women’s races on the World Cup schedule, and fifth of eight SG’s. … It’s a fairly tight race with the top seven within the same second.

Renate Goetschl gets her 31st career win, 10th in SG and fourth win of the season. … She’s got two wins in DH and two in SG. … She also has two seconds (GS & SG) and a third (DH). … The 12th win of the season for Austria in 35 races and one combined.

It is Goetschl’s fifth win at Cortina, the last a SG-DH two-day sweep 1/17-18/2003. … She has 12 podiums at Cortina dating back to 1996.

It is the 53rd career podium for Martina Ertl and the 15th in SG. … It’s her third podium of the season, all in different disciplines, and her fourth podium at Cortina, but the first since placing second in both a SG and GS 1/22-24/1999. … She was 27th in the SG on Wednesday. … Hilde Gerg gets her 51st career podium and 22nd in SG. … It is her seventh podium of the season, fourth in SG and second of the week: she was third on Wednesday. … It is her fifth podium at Cortina, including a win in 2002 and third-place finishes in 1999 and 2003.

The sixth top 10 of the season for Kirsten Clark, with three of those coming in SG. … It is her best SG result at Cortina. … It’s the sixth time in eight completed races Caroline Lalive has been 12th or better. … She has SG finishes of 15-10-11-4-12.

This was the second-best result of the season for Libby Ludlow, behind
a 14th in SG at Veysonnaz. … It matches her second-best career finish as well. … It is the sixth scoring finish of the season for Julia Mancuso, in three disciplines. … It is the fifth scoring finish of the season for Jonna Mendes.

Two days after recording her first career World Cup win, Genevieve Simard was helicoptered off the course with a leg injury, but she did not suffer any season-threatening injuries. … Emily Brydon matches her third best result of the season. … She was 14th two days ago on the same hill.

Anja Paerson maintains her overall lead 781-709 over Goetschl. … Clark leads U.S. skiers in ninth at 358. … Gerg leads the super G standings 325-316 over Goetschl. … Clark is 10th at 141 and Lalive 11th at 138. … Austria leads the Nations Cup 8488-2485 over Italy. … The U.S. is third at 2290. … Austria leads the women’s standings 3604-1956 for Germany. … The U.S. is fourth at 1223.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh