Kildow takes silver in World Juniors downhill; German, Austrian get gold medals{mosimage}USSA — Lindsey Kildow tore down a slick, flat course Tuesday to collect her second straight downhill silver medal at the FIS Alpine World Junior Championships, finishing 0.22 seconds behind Germany’s Maria Riesch.

Austrian Romed Baumann won the men’s downhill with Christopher Beckmann producing the top U.S. result, finishing sixth.

In a race moved up a day because of fears about poor weather midweek, Riesch won in 1:12.23 with Kildow timed in 1:12.45. Julia Mancuso, bronze medalist a year ago in DH, finished fifth in the first race of this season’s championships in 1:13.09.

“It was a pretty good day. We’re delighted with Lindsey’s result and Julia’s strong result,” said U.S. team leader Walt Evans, “but the girls aren’t happy with their performance. They feel they can do better. They know they can own the podium this week and they’re anxious to do it.”

Coaches were pleased with Beckmann’s race and noted the New York Ski Education Foundation had the top two men with Beckman’s finish and Andrew Weibrecht in 31st.

Evans said an overnight drop in temperatures locked-in the course and made it rock hard. “Trevor Wagner [U.S. women’s Europa Cup head coach] was on the women’s jury and when he went up at 6 for course inspection, he came partway down and radioed back, ‘Make sure to sharpen your edges one last time because if you don’t you could have a runaway.’ The course was really frozen, so hard and very slick at the bottom. They were perfect racing conditions. The organizers in Maribor have done a great job preparing the hill.

“This is an unforgiving hill. You have to be focused because it’s also flat, so if you make a little mistake here, another there, you don’t have any section where you can pick it up,” he said.

Although the downhill was advanced a day from the schedule, Evans said the rest of the schedule should come off as planned. “It was a good call to move things up because of the concern about heavy weather,” he added. “We had a great day for racing and now they’ll have a rest day. Our athletes really have been hammering and they can use a day to relax…no training, just take off, see this beautiful city and rest your legs, catch your breath.”

The women run super G Thursday from the same start but with five more control gates, as mandated by International Ski Federation rules, he said, while the men have a day off. Friday the 13th, men ski super G while the women race slalom. Sasturday, it’s men’s GS and the women have an off day. Sunday, the championships conclude with men’s SL and women’s GS plus the combined calculation. At World Juniors, the combined breaks with the standard DH/SL formula and includes SL/GS/DH results.

2004 FIS Alpine World Junior Championships

Maribor, Slovenia

February 10, 2004

Men’s Downhill

1. Romed Baumann, Austria, 1:09.61

2. Silvano Varettoni, Italy, 1:10.01

3. Francois Bourque, Canada, 1:10.19

4. Kurt Pitrschler, Italy, 1:10.20

5. Rok Perko, Slovenia, 1:10.30

Also:

6. Christopher Beckmann, Altamont, N.Y./New York Ski Education Foundation, 1:10.31

31(t). Andrew Weibrecht, Lake Placid, N.Y./NYSEF/U.S. Development Team, 1:11.35

42. Evan Weiss, Seattle/White Pass Ski Team/U.S. Development Team, 1:11.71

44. Eric Mann, Mammoth Lakes, Calif./Mammoth Mountain Ski Team, 1:11.79

47. Ted Ligety, Park City, Utah/Park City Ski Team/U.S. Development Team, 1:11.90

62. Jeff Harrison, Steilacoom, Wash./White Pass Ski Team/U.S. C Team, 1:13.11

Women

1. Maria Riesch, Germany, 1:12.23

2. Lindsey Kildow, Vail, Colo./Ski&Snowboard Club Vail/U.S. B Team, 1:12.45

3. Daniela Mueller, Austria, 1:12.85

4. Nadia Kamer, Switzerland, 1:12.98

5. Julia Mancuso, Olympic Valley, Calif./Squaw Valley Ski Team/U.S. A Team, 1:13.09

Also:

20. Caitlin Ciccone, Littleton, N.H./Burke Mountain Academy/U.S. Development Team, 1:14.67

25. Stacey Cook, Truckee, Calif./Mammoth Mountain Ski Team/U.S. C Team, 1:15.05

27. Kaylin Richardson, Edina, Minn./Team Gilboa/U.S. B Team Team, 1:15.20

41. Resi Stiegler, Jackson Hole, Wyo./Jackson Hole Ski Team/U.S. B Team, 1:16.06