St. Anton: Vonn wins, Mancuso 3rd in downhill

ST. ANTON, Austria — St Anton provided the challenge the women of the World Cup have been asking for. Lindsey Vonn, with her ninth career win, Canadian Kelly VanderBeek with her career best result and Julia Mancuso with her second podium of the season showed the North Americans are up to the challenge.
    "That was the most challenging downhill we've had in a while," said U.S. speed coach Alex Hoedlmoser. "Probably for the women for ever."

ST. ANTON, Austria — St. Anton provided the challenge the women of the World Cup have been asking for. Lindsey Vonn, with her ninth career win, Canadian Kelly VanderBeek with her career best result and Julia Mancuso with her second podium of the season showed the North Americans are up to the challenge.
    "That was the most challenging downhill we've had in a while," said U.S. speed coach Alex Hoedlmoser. "Probably for the women for ever."
    It showed. Nobody had a clean run all the way down the track so it came down to who could best recover from their mistakes.
    Vonn ran into problems high on the course and said she just pulled it together and kept pointing downhill. ''I don't know what happened. I had so many mistakes early on and never thought I would post the fastest time,'' Vonn said. ''I can't believe this. After five gates I really thought it was all over. But I stayed cool and just tried to go down full speed.''
    The win was Vonn's first-ever in Austria.
    Mancuso was 0.3 seconds faster than Vonn halfway down the course, but lost time as she slipped in the lower part and barely avoided crashing.
    Hoedlmoser said the only way to attack the course was to take the risk level to the edge.
    "It was what they had to do," he said. "You totally had to put it on the edge today. You had to hammer it down. Lindsey (Vonn) was excellent in the middle and totally put it on edge at the bottom. Julia (Mancuso) was excellent at the top and then had a mistake at the bottom, but I don’t think there was any racer who had a clean run. There's a lot of terrain. It's challenging from top to bottom."
    Vanderbeek had led the competition until Vonn's race.
    Vanderbeek also survived a difficult moment in the final part when she nearly lost her balance after a small bump. “I guess I was lucky there, it could have been brutal,” said Vanderbeek, who wore a Santa Claus hat while waiting behind the leader’s board in the finish line. “I have been waiting for a long time on this result, I’m really happy that I was able to confirm my strong training runs today.”
    Mancuso was 0.3 seconds faster than Vonn halfway down the course, but lost time as she slipped in the lower part and barely avoided crashing.
    Switzerland’s Fraenzi Aufdenblatten was fourth, just two tenths away from her third World Cup podium and Maria Holaus was the top Austrian in fifth place.
    Nicole Hosp, who finished sixth, regained the lead in the World Cup overall standings as Sweden’s Anja Paerson preferred giving up the race on her way down after feeling a sudden pain at her knee. After skiing down to the finish area, Paerson said things don’t look as bad as she first thought and that she hopes to be able to be able to enter the super combined event on Saturday. Paerson posted the fastest time on in the upper part of the course at the halfway mark after briefly losing control of the ski.    
    Italy’s former super G Olympic champion Daniela Ceccarelli was a surprising seventh, her best performance since giving birth to her daughter two years ago.
    Defending World Cup champion Renate Goetschl lost time when she lost control of a ski after jumping and finished well outside the top 10.
    All these misfortunes only heightened the scale of the efforts from the North Americans.
    "One and Three is not luck," said Hoedlmoser. "That was pilot skill."
    Stacey Cook missed a gate shortly before the finish and was disqualified.
    Martina Schild, seventh in the downhill standings, did not start because of a knee injury from a crash in Thursday's training.
        — The Associated Press and Manuele Lang contributed to this story

The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women's Downhill, St Anton, Austria, Dec. 21, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/binding
1 Vonn (Kildow), Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
2 Vanderbeek, Volkl/Lange/Marker
3 Mancuso, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
4 Aufdenblatten, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5 Holaus, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
6 Hosp, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
7 Ceccarelli, Dynastar/Lange/Look
8 Janyk, Volkl/Lange/Marker
9 Schild, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10 Styger, Volkl/Lange/Marker
 
Women's Downhill, St Anton, Austria, Dec. 21, 2007. … It is the eleventh race of the women's 39 event 2007-08 World Cup schedule. … The fourth of 10 scheduled downhills. … It is the 36th World Cup held at St Anton. … The 12th Cup downhill. … The sixth women's downhill and first since Jan. 16, 1999. … It is the first of two races set for St Anton this season, the second a super combined scheduled for tomorrow, Dec. 22. … It is a wild race held in clear conditions with tour leader Anja Paerson abandoning course, speed champion Renate Goetschl losing control over a jump and race winner Lindsey Vonn veering off course before going on to win.
    It is the ninth career win for Lindsey Vonn (Kildow). … Her seventh in DH. … Her first at St Anton. … It is her second win of the season after the Lake Louise DH Dec. 1., and her third podium having also placed second in DH at St Moritz Dec. 15. … It is the 175th U.S. World Cup win. … The last three have all come in DH. … The last six from the women's team. … The last of five U.S. World Cup wins at St Anton came from Bode Miller in slalom Feb. 15, 2004. … Daron Rahlves won the SG World Championship at St Anton in 2001. … Nine career wins ties her with Picabo Street and Steve Mahre for fifth all-time among U.S. skiers, and second among women behind Tamara McKinney (18).
    It is a career best World Cup placing for Kelly VanderBeek. … It is her second Cup podium having placed third at Lake Louise in super G Dec. 3, 2006. … It is the fifth Canadian podium of the season and she represents the fourth Canadian skier to contribute.
    It is the 15th career World Cup podium for Julia Mancuso. … Her seventh in DH. … It is her second podium of the season having been second in the season opening GS at Soelden Oct. 27. … It was the first two podium race for the U.S. since Mancuso and Kildow went 1-2 in combined at Zauchensee Jan. 14, 2007.
    It is the 15th career top 10 for Britt Janyk. … and her worst DH finish of the season ma
tching her eighth at St Moritz. … Emily Brydon also matched her St Moritz result in 15th. … She was 14th at Aspen Dec. 8 and 16th at Lake Louise Dec. 1. … She also placed second in SG at St Moritz Dec. 16. … Libby Ludlow finished 25th for her first DH scoring finish of the season. … Her best this season is 24th in the St Moritz SG. … Resi Stiegler just missed scoring points with a 33rd place finish, .16 behind 30th place and a point.
    Winning margin is .36 of a second. … Top eight competitors are within a second. … Top 18 within two seconds. … Nicole Hosp (sixth in race) takes over the lead of the World Cup overall standings over Anja Paerson (did not finish race) and Marlies Schild (ninth in race) tied in second 419-383-383. … Vonn is fourth at 374 and Mancuso sixth at 304. … Britt Janyk leads the Canadians on the overall chart in seventh with 279. … Vonn leads the downhill standings 330-224 over Janyk. … Renate Goetschl (13th in race) is third at 210. … Anja Paerson is fourth and Kelly VanderBeek fifth with 149 and 139pts respectively. … U.S. women are second to Austria in the Nations Cup standings 2029-902 with Switzerland third at 828.

St. Anton World Cup downhill