Paerson completes another sweep at Maribor; Koznick tops for U.S. in 17th

Paerson completes another sweep at Maribor; Koznick tops for U.S. in 17thThe seemingly unstoppable Anja Paerson notched her seventh win of the season and second in two days in the slalom Sunday at Maribor, extending her lead in the overall World Cup.

The Swede, who also leads the slalom and giant slalom World Cup standings, beat Austrian Marlies Schild by a wide margin — 1.24 seconds — with her time of 1:38.08. Another Austrian, Nicole Hosp, the only woman other than Paerson to win a slalom this season, was third in 1:39.43.

Paerson, who won the giant slalom on Saturday, swept both gate races at Maribor for the second straight season.

It was not a strong day for the U.S. women’s team. Kristina Koznick, who wound up 17th, was the only skier to qualify for the second run. Sarah Schleper and Resi Stiegler failed to make the second run, and Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Kildow were first-run DNFs.

Britt Janyk, in 25th, was the only starter for the Canadian women.

The win allowed Paerson to move 105 points ahead of her nearest rival in the overall competition, Austrian Renate Goetschl, a speed specialist like most of the leading women in the standings.

German Martina Ertl, who apart from Paerson was the only woman from the overall top six to race in the slalom, failed to collect any points when she skied out of the second run after setting the third best time in the opening run.

Alpine World Cup

Women’s Slalom

Maribor, Slovenia

January 25, 2004

1. Anja Paerson (Sweden) (first run 49.78/second run48.30) 1:38.08

2. Marlies Schild (Austria) (50.26/49.06) 1:39.32

3. Nicole Hosp (Austria) (50.92/48.51) 1:39.43

4. Monika Bergmann-Schmuderer (Germany) (50.47/49.15) 1:39.62

5. Tanja Poutiainen (Finland) (51.00/48.64) 1:39.64

6. Sabine Egger (Austria) (50.99/48.70) 1:39.69

7. Anna Ottosson (Sweden) (51.40/48.82) 1:40.22

8. Laure Pequegnot (France) (50.92/49.34) 1:40.26

9. Therese Borssen (Sweden) (51.70/48.81) 1:40.51

10. Marlies Oester (Switzerland) (51.97/48.68) 1:40.65

11. Veronika Zuzulova (Slovakia) (52.22/48.55) 1:40.77

12. Line Viken (Norway) (51.75/49.29) 1:41.04

13. Sonja Nef (Switzerland) (51.72/49.36) 1:41.08

14. Michaela Kirchgasser (Austria) (52.16/48.96) 1:41.12

15. Elisabeth Goergl (Austria) (52.47/48.71) 1:41.18

16. Nika Fleiss (Croatia) (51.97/49.22) 1:41.19

17. Kristina Koznick (U.S.) (51.61/49.63) 1:41.24

18. Ana Jelusic (Croatia) (51.98/49.55) 1:41.53

19. Vanessa Vidal (France) (52.55/49.23) 1:41.78

20. Lisa Bremseth (Norway) (53.05/49.05) 1:42.10

21. Susanne Ekman (Sweden) (52.65/49.57) 1:42.22

22. Carina Raich (Austria) (53.72/48.93) 1:42.65

23. Noriyo Hiroi (Japan) (53.28/49.60) 1:42.88

24. Jessica Walter (Liechtenstein) (53.12/50.11) 1:43.23

25. Britt Janyk (Canada) (53.71/49.59) 1:43.30

26. Silke Bachmann (Italy) (53.34/50.22) 1:43.56

27. Claudia Morandini (Italy) (53.39/50.34) 1:43.73

28. Karen Persyn (Belgium) (53.57/50.90) 1:44.47

DNF 2nd: Martina Ertl (Germany), Trine-Bakke Rognmo (Norway)

Other North Americans:

DNQ 2nd: Resi Stiegler, Sarah Schleper (U.S.)

DNF 1st: Julia Mancuso, Lindsey Kildow (U.S.)

THE SCOOP

> by Hank McKee

Equipment, Women’s Slalom

Maribor, Slovenia, January 25, 2004

Skier, skis/boots/bindings

1 Paerson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

2 Schild, Atomic/Lange/Atomic

3 Hosp, Volkl/Fischer/Marker

4 Bergmann-Schmuderer, Volkl/Rexxam/Marker

5 Poutiainen, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

6 Egger, Head/Lange/Tyrolia

7 Ottosson, Dynastar/Lange/Tyrolia

8 Pequegnot, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

9 Borssen, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

10 Oester, Nordica/Nordica/Tyrolia

The 22nd of 36 scheduled women’s races, and the sixth of 11 slaloms. … The 14th win for Salomon skis. … It’s an enormous margin of victory for Anja Paerson, at 1.24 seconds, but only her second-largest margin of the season. She won the Park City GS by 1.42 seconds. … The 18th career win for Paerson, and her seventh of the season, fifth in slalom. … It’s her sixth straight win at Maribor over three seasons. … Only Vreni Schneider has won more races at Maribor (eight) and it took her nine seasons. … Paerson has won five of the six slaloms this season and was second in the other, at Madonna, to Nicole Hosp.

It’s a young podium with no one older than 23. … The sixth career podium for Marlies Schild, all in slalom, and her third this season. … The 13th career podium for Nicole Hosp (of just 20 completed races; she also has 16 other starts). … Her seventh podium in eight completed races this season (with three uncompleted).

It’s the seventh scoring race of the season for Kristina Koznick, but her worst of five slalom finishes. … The second scoring result of the season for Britt Janyk, and her sixth slalom scoring finish in 19 career races.

Karen Persyn picks up the first World Cup points for Belgium since Henri Mollin was ninth in the Wengen combined in 1982. … Fifteen different countries are represented among the point scorers.

Paerson extends the overall World Cup lead to 998-893 over Renate Goetschl. … Top American is Kirsten Clark in ninth at 456. … Paerson also maintains the slalom lead 580-325 over Schild. … Koznick, in ninth at 154, is the top U.S. skier. … Austria’s Nations Cup lead is now 10527-2865 over the USA. … Italy is third at 2859. … Austria leads the women’s standings 4368-2356 over Germany. … The U.S. women are fourth at 1488.