Fenninger shows surprise slalom form to win Bankso combined

By Published On: March 1st, 2015Comments Off on Fenninger shows surprise slalom form to win Bankso combined

Austrian Anna Fenninger has been riding high since her dominating performance at the World Championships in Vail/Beaver Creek, and not even a slalom run could slow her down. Leading after the super G portion of the alpine combined in Bansko, Bulgaria, Fenninger skied an impressive slalom run (the only event she doesn’t race on the World Cup tour) to overtake slalom skiers Tina Maze and Kathrin Zettel and win the first World Cup combined of her career.

After two straight days of race cancellations, the women had to wait out another hold in the morning before the super G. Fog, which has plagued the hill the entire weekend, was holding strong throughout the morning. It finally began to clear and six racers were sent before the fog covered the course again. The race was briefly interrupted until officials deemed it safe enough and racing resumed. Two more racers were sent, Zettel and Lindsey Vonn, before another brief hold ensued. This time the fog cleared for good and the remaining athletes had a clear track.

Heavy snow had fallen throughout the stormy weekend leaving a challenging and bumpy course for the women. But Fenninger, starting bib 16, appeared to have no problems with the difficult course. As she has for the better part of the month, she skied technically and tactically strong on one of the most difficult sets to lead the way heading into the slalom.

“I know I can ski fast,” said Fenninger. “To be consistent, it’s a mental thing. It’s not always easy for me to find the right rhythm at the beginning of the season. The point is to stay focused. I put all my energy into every race and don’t think about anything else.”

Maze was in hot pursuit of Fenninger, sitting in second and only trailing by 0.45 seconds after the super G portion. The Slovene who’s leading the overall and who won the combined at World Championships and another slalom race earlier this season looked poised to take the one and only World Cup alpine combined of the year. She skied smoothly and quickly through the deteriorating conditions in the slalom run to claim an advantage over then-leader Zettel. It appeared the race was hers for the taking.

But Fenninger sat in the start with loads of confidence, and it showed immediately in her skiing. She pushed out of the start and built on her advantage over Maze through the first two intervals with the look of a seasoned slalom skier. She managed to hang on through the final steep pitch into the finish and only lost six-hundredths out of her lead from the start to take the win by 0.39 seconds over Maze. Zettel finished third, 1.06 seconds behind.

“It’s incredible to think I won my first World Cup alpine combined today,” Fenninger said. “After the first run, I didn’t believe this could be possible. I am really surprised. I had such a cool feeling coming down the slalom course.”

Maze bounced back from a disappointing weekend in Maribor in front of her hometown fans where she did not finish either race and was pleased with her second-place result. She continues to lead the overall standings, but Fenninger has quickly been closing the gap with her recent success. What once looked to be an unapprochable lead had shrunk to a tight 64-point advantage for Maze. The women have nine more races remaining on the calendar, but only two of those are slaloms, the only event Fenninger does not race.

“It has been a long day, that’s why we look tired,” said Maze smiling. “It was tough to ski. Being focused all the time waiting to go down these three days was not easy. They only let us down today. I was actually really happy that we could race and feel the terrain even though conditions weren’t that nice.”

Zettel, who was one of the unlucky few to be sent early in the fog, shrugged off the bad draw to ski a clean and fast slalom run, moving up from ninth after the super G to finish on the podium. She overtook a trio of skiers who moved up significantly from the super G leg. Margot Bailet finished fourth, Marie-Michele Gagnon fifth and Dominique Gisin (third after the super G) was able to squeak a hundredth in front of her teammate Wendy Holdener, who skied the fastest slalom run, to finish sixth and seventh, respectively.

The Americans were represented in the second run by Julia Mancuso who ended up 12th overall, after finishing eighth in the super G leg; Laurenne Ross ended up 17th; and Jackie Wiles, who was unlucky in 31st after the super G, wound up 26th overall. Vonn, who along with Zettel was hit with heavy fog during her run, was 2.57 seconds behind Fenninger after the super G and elected not to start the slalom run to rest and prepare for Monday’s super G.

“Well I just want to make sure I’m saving my body and my knees going forward because I want to race in the next Olympics. So, you know, a day like today my goal is just to get to the bottom and use it as training for tomorrow,” admitted Vonn. “But looking forward I’m hoping to win the downhill and super G globes this season, so those are big goals for me.”

The women will race a make-up super G tomorrow in Bansko and then move on to the Garmisch speed races next weekend.

See more photos from this race here

 

The Scoop

By Hank McKee

  1. Fenninger, Head/Head/Head
  2. Maze, Stoeckli/Lange/Atomic
  3. Zettel, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  4. Bailet, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
  5. Gagnon, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
  6. Gisin, Dynastar/Lange
  7. Holdener, Head/Head/Head
  8. Kirchgasser, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  9. Miradoli, Dynastar/Lange
  10. Marsaglia, Volkl/Marker

Women’s World Cup alpine combined, Bansko, Bulgaria, March 1, 2015:

  • It is the 23rd of 34 races on the women’s schedule … the first and only combined on the slate. … It is the ninth World Cup race to be held at Bansko and the second combined, the first combined for women. … It is the third race set for Bansko this season, but the first to be held.
  • It is the 11th career World Cup win for Anna Fenninger … her fifth of the season including two World Championship gold medals (super G and GS). … It is her first combined win. … The winning margin is 0.39 of a second. … Top two are within the same second. … Top nine within two seconds.
  • It is the 76th career World Cup podium for Tina Maze … her 11th of the season including three World Championship medals.
  • It is the 50th career World Cup podium for Kathrin Zettel and her fifth of the season.
  • It is the 10th career top five in World Cup for Marie-Michele Gagnon … her third in combined. … It is her best placing of the season. … It is the 14th best of 20 World Cup combined results for Julia Mancuso. … Laurenne Ross matches her 21st career best score … ninth best of the season. … It is the third best of six career scoring results for Jacqueline Wiles … her first career combined result.
  • Tina Maze holds off Anna Fenninger to maintain the lead of the World Cup overall standings 1065-1001. … Mikaela Shiffrin (did not race) is third overall with 750pts and Lindsey Vonn (did not start slalom leg) is fourth at 646pts. … Gagnon leads Canada in 26th with 219pts.
  • Austria leads the women’s Nations Cup standings 4134-2291 over the U.S. … Sweden is third with 1745pts. … Canada is ninth at 624pts.

 

Results

 1  16  55947 FENNINGER Anna 1989 AUT  1:12.73  52.33  2:05.06  0.00
 2  20  565243 MAZE Tina 1983 SLO  1:13.18  52.27  2:05.45  +0.39  3.59
 3  7  55838 ZETTEL Kathrin 1986 AUT  1:14.02  52.10  2:06.12  +1.06  9.75
 4  11  196968 BAILET Margot 1990 FRA  1:14.25  52.24  2:06.49  +1.43  13.15
 5  17  105269 GAGNON Marie-Michele 1989 CAN  1:14.72  52.04  2:06.76  +1.70  15.63
 6  10  515747 GISIN Dominique 1985 SUI  1:13.32  53.56  2:06.88  +1.82  16.74
 7  28  516280 HOLDENER Wendy 1993 SUI  1:16.16  50.73  2:06.89  +1.83  16.83
 8  19  55759 KIRCHGASSER Michaela 1985 AUT  1:14.78  52.22  2:07.00  +1.94  17.84
 9  2  197497 MIRADOLI Romane 1994 FRA  1:13.72  53.32  2:07.04  +1.98  18.21
 10  14  297702 MARSAGLIA Francesca 1990 ITA  1:14.24  53.18  2:07.42  +2.36  21.70
 11  12  515997 FEIERABEND Denise 1989 SUI  1:15.68  51.83  2:07.51  +2.45  22.53
 12  13  537545 MANCUSO Julia 1984 USA  1:13.83  53.82  2:07.65  +2.59  23.82
 13  25  56087 SIEBENHOFER Ramona 1991 AUT  1:15.18  52.48  2:07.66  +2.60  23.91
 14  1  55576 GOERGL Elisabeth 1981 AUT  1:13.53  54.34  2:07.87  +2.81  25.84
 15  33  296427 SCHNARF Johanna 1984 ITA  1:15.02  52.89  2:07.91  +2.85  26.21
 16  23  565333 BRODNIK Vanja 1989 SLO  1:15.02  53.28  2:08.30  +3.24  29.79
 17  4  538573 ROSS Laurenne 1988 USA  1:14.22  54.31  2:08.53  +3.47  31.91
 18  32  297910 CURTONI Elena 1991 ITA  1:14.61  54.14  2:08.75  +3.69  33.93
 19  41  56128 HUETTER Cornelia 1992 AUT  1:15.24  53.86  2:09.10  +4.04  37.15
 20  24  196726 BARTHET Anne-Sophie 1988 FRA  1:16.79  52.37  2:09.16  +4.10  37.70
 21  6  56125 PUCHNER Mirjam 1992 AUT  1:16.40  53.64  2:10.04  +4.98  45.79
 22  5  516219 NUFER Priska 1992 SUI  1:15.10  54.98  2:10.08  +5.02  46.16
 23  15  565401 BUCIK Ana 1993 SLO  1:17.22  53.44  2:10.66  +5.60  51.50
 24  38  155563 KRIZOVA Klara 1989 CZE  1:15.78  56.83  2:12.61  +7.55  69.43
 25  27  45331 SMALL Greta 1995 AUS  1:17.68  55.62  2:13.30  +8.24  75.77
 26  36  539536 WILES Jacqueline 1992 USA  1:16.70  56.70  2:13.40  +8.34  76.69
 27  39  315187 IGNJATOVIC Nevena 1990 SRB  1:17.66  55.94  2:13.60  +8.54  78.53
Did not start 2nd run
 42  296472 FANCHINI Elena 1985 ITA
 40  245066 MIKLOS Edit 1988 HUN
 35  106849 YURKIW Larisa 1988 CAN
 31  205218 REBENSBURG Viktoria 1989 GER
 8  537544 VONN Lindsey 1984 USA
 3  355050 WEIRATHER Tina 1989 LIE
Did not finish 2nd run
 29  297601 BRIGNONE Federica 1990 ITA
 22  425929 MOWINCKEL Ragnhild 1992 NOR
 18  55690 HOSP Nicole 1983 AUT
Did not finish 1st run
 45  495318 RUIZ CASTILLO Carolina 1981 SPA
 44  375018 COLETTI Alexandra 1983 MON
 43  95050 KIRKOVA Maria 1986 BUL
 37  206460 WENIG Michaela 1992 GER
 34  516248 FLURY Jasmine 1993 SUI
 30  515766 SUTER Fabienne 1985 SUI
 26  196812 PELLISSIER Marion 1988 FRA
 21  516138 GUT Lara 1991 SUI
 9  565360 STUHEC Ilka 1990 SLO

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About the Author: Jessica Kelley

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Ski Team, Kelley collected three NorAm titles, won GS silver at the 2002 World Junior Championships, and was a member of the 2007 World Championships team during her professional career. She resides in Park City, Utah, with her husband, Adam Cole.