St. Anton: Paerson gunning for three straight wins

Less than a week after winning the recent speed events at St. Moritz, Sweden’s Anja Paerson is aiming to win her third consecutive race this week and achieve another of her impressive hat tricks in St Anton, Austria, where the last World Cup events before Christmas are scheduled on Friday and Saturday.

ST. ANTON, Austria — Less than a week after winning the recent speed events at St. Moritz, Sweden’s Anja Paerson is aiming to win her third consecutive race this week and achieve another of her impressive hat tricks in St Anton, Austria, where the last World Cup events before Christmas are scheduled on Friday and Saturday.
    The two-time overall World Cup champion has managed to win three consecutive events in the past, including last February at the FIS World Championships at Are where she captured three gold medals in a row.
    It’s her strongest wish now to remain unbeaten in Friday’s speed event and then celebrate her first World Cup victory in a super combined on Saturday. A success in that discipline would allow her to join the exclusive group of champions having excelled in all alpine disciplines.
    The 26-year-old champion from northern Taernaby appreciates the demanding Karl Schranz course in St. Anton, which hosted the men’s downhill at the 2001 FIS World Championships. As in St. Moritz last week, Paerson didn’t clock very fast times in her first two training runs before skipping the third one on Thursday to rest and train slalom.
    Paerson was eighth in Tuesday’s first training run captured by Austria’s upcoming talent Maria Holaus, and sixth on Wednesday when American Lindsey Vonn clocked the fastest time of the week ahead of Holaus and Switzerland’s Martina Schild.
    Yet Paerson'spotential, experience and new motivation put her high up in the list of skiers to beat this weekend.
    On Thursday, Nadia Styger, also from Switzerland, was the quickest down the hard-packed run only a few hundredths ahead of Julia Mancuso, who nearly crashed into a course worker during her first practice run earlier this week.
    A year ago, Mancuso won the first of two downhills at Val d’Isère, France, and finished second in the other one, yet this season the Olympic giant slalom champion finished far from the podium in Lake Louise, Aspen and St. Moritz.
    Renate Goetschl, the defending downhill and super G World Cup champion, has again been very consistent in training during the entire week. The Austrian seems ready to celebrate her first season win after reaching three podiums in the past five speed events in North America and Switzerland. With 46 victories in four disciplines, Goetschl is the winningest active World Cup skier.
    The 32-year-old veteran only won three of her 24 World Cup downhill races in Austria so far and this could well be her last chance to do it again in case she decides to retire at the end of this winter.
    “This is great downhill run and I think the women will prove that they deserve competing on a men’s course,” she said this week. “The final steep part is really challenging and exciting, just perfect for veterans like me.”
    That last grueling section punished a few racers Thursday, including Monaco’s Alexandra Coletti, who severely damaged her knee ligament in a bad crash there. Holaus also fell but wasn't injured. Vonn missed a gate going into that last difficult section but the skier from Park City seems confident after finishing second last week at St. Moritz after a small mistake in the middle section of the Corviglia run.
    “You have to fight a lot here, it’s a spectacular course but I like it and I’ll go for it,” said the leader in the downhill standings who won the opening speed race at Lake Louise before finishing fourth at Aspen the following week.
    Canada’s Britt Janyk, the winner at Aspen, was 20th in that last timed trial in which her teammate Kelly Vanderbeek was sixth. Emily Brrydon, second at St Moritz, was 14th.
    Defending Overall World Cup champion Nicole Hosp and slalom star Marlies Schild both showed great determination in that last test, clocking the ninth- and seventh-best times. They aim to finish among the top 10 on Friday before battling for victory in Saturday’s super combined. Hosp is actually second in the overall standings, only four points behind Paerson, and Schild third, trailing by 29 points.