The breaks
Wachter wins giant slalom after Meissnitzer falls
Posted: Wednesday February 24, 1999 06:05 PM
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Austria's Anita Wachter finally got the better of teammate Alexandra Meissnitzer. AP |
ARE, Sweden (AP) -- Veteran Anita Wachter of Austria capitalized
on teammate Alexandra Meissnitzer's mistake halfway down the
second run to win a World Cup giant slalom under the lights
Wednesday night.
Wachter, 32, racing on one of her favorite hills where she
clinched the 1994 World Cup GS title, had a two-run total of 2
minutes, 16.36 seconds down Gastrappet. It was her 12th career GS
win and third this season on the World Cup circuit.
"I had a very strong second run," Wachter said. "I wasn't so
pleased with my first run. I made a few mistakes. So I knew I had
to ski better in the second to make the podium.
"But I wouldn't have won if she [Meissnitzer] had come through.
I was lucky this time."
A few minutes after Wachter had finished her second run,
Meissnitzer made her worst mistake of the season in a GS
competition.
She skied smoothly on the difficult top section where visibility
was poor because of a thick fog that rolled in during the evening,
but then made an inside ski mistake after going through a gate
about midway down the illuminated course.
"I didn't take a lot of risks in the upper part because I
wanted to have a clean run and the visibility wasn't so good,"
Meissnitzer said. "I was ready to attack on the lower part, but it
was a very hard slope.
"I just crashed. Things like this happen when you take all the
risks. I'm upset, but this is part of the sport and I have to
accept it."
Meissnitzer led Norway's Andrine Flemmen by 66 hundredths of a
second and Wachter by .78 seconds after the first run, which was
held in perfect conditions under sunny skies in the afternoon.
The mishap came after a streak of podium-only finishes and four
GS wins by Meissnitzer this season. She has virtually clinched the
GS title and leads Wachter 620 points to 536 before the season
finale in Sierra Nevada, Spain, next month.
Meissnizter also has a big lead over Hilde Gerg of Germany --
1,430 points to 1,001 -- as she chases her first overall title. She
has a chance to win the Super G and downhill titles as well.
Flemmen finished second on 2:16.42. She had finished third
behind Meissnitzer and Wachter in Monday's GS here. In the recent
World Championships at Vail, Colorado, Flemmen was the silver
medalist behind Meissnitzer in that discipline.
Sonja Nef of Switzerland was third Wednesday in 2:16.73 followed
by the three young Sedes, Anja Paerson, Anna Ottosson and Ylva
Nowen. Paerson, 17, matched Wachter's time of 1:07.28, the fastest
of the second run.
Former double Olympic and world champion Deborah Compagnoni of
Italy skied out in the first run. Sweden's Pernilla Wiberg, a
former World Cup overall champion who won the combined and took a
slalom silver in Vail, fell in the second run as her poor GS
campaign continued in a discipline that used to be one of her
favorites.
Caroline Lalive of the United States was the only North American
who qualified for the second run. She placed 21st among 24
finishers.
| Women's World Cup Results |
| Finish |
Name |
Country |
Time |
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
|
Anita Wachter
Andrine Flemmen
Sonja Nef
Anja Paerson
Anna Ottosson
Ylva Nowen
Birgit Heeb
Leila Piccard
Corinne Rey Bellet
Martina Ertl
Urska Hrovat
Karin Koellerer
Silke Bachmann
Hilde Gerg
Fujiko Sekino
Sonia Vierin
Erika Hansson
Christiane Mitterwallner
Melanie Lenoir
Janica Kostelic
Caroline Lalive
Alenka Dovzan
Sylviane Berthod
Renate Goetschl
|
Austria
Norway
Switzerland
Sweden
Sweden
Sweden
Liechtenstein
France
Switzerland
Germany
Slovenia
Austria
Italy
Germany
France
Italy
Sweden
Austria
France
Croatia
United States
Slovenia
Switzerland
Austria
|
2:16.36
2:16.42
2:16.73
2:17.23
2:17.72
2:17.77
2:17.78
2:17.92
2:18.13
2:18.20
2:19.28
2:19.54
2:19.70
2:20.26
2:20.32
2:20.71
2:20.85
2:21.14
2:21.19
2:21.38
2:21.53
2:21.75
2:21.82
2:22.55
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