 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
'Especially satisfying' Kostner victorious in women's downhill
Posted: Friday December 17, 1999 04:02 PM
ST. MORITZ, Switzerland (AP) -- Italy's Isolde Kostner won her second downhill and third World Cup race this season Friday, moving within a point of the overall lead. Kostner completed the 2,780-meter Corviglia course in 1 minute, 37.81 seconds, finishing over a second ahead of her closest rival Regina Haeusl of Germany and confirming her status as the circuit's top speed racer. Winless for almost two years, Kostner has surged to the forefront of women's skiing this year, beginning with her triumph in the season-opening downhill and a victory in a super-G in Val d'Isere last week. The Italian, who now has six career World Cup downhill victories, two super-G wins and has reached the podium 31 times in both events, admitted she was uneasy going into the race. "This victory is especially satisfying because it is so difficult and technical," Kostner said. "I usually have a great deal of difficulty with courses that have many hills and tight turns. "I was very nervous about this race and the main jump at the top," said Kostner, a notoriously poor jumper. "I hardly slept at all last night." The artificial jump on the newly-reconfigured course claimed a victim during training on Thursday, when the World Cup's newest darling Janica Kostelic crash-landed, suffering multiple torn knee ligaments, which ended her season. A second-place finish was an unexpected birthday present for Haeusl, whose previous best result this season was 10th in the Val d'Isere super-G. Her last podium finish was over a year ago when she finished third in a downhill in Lake Louise. Crossing in 1:37.89, Haeusl extended Germany's streak of second places. Germany's Hilde Gerg, who finished second to Austria's Alexandra Meissnitzer in the overall World Cup rankings last season, has finished runner-up three times this season, placing second behind Kostner in the Lake Louise downhill and second in both super-Gs -- each time missing victory by an aggravating .10 of a second or less. "The whole team has been chasing Hilde because she's being doing so well," said Haeusl, who has one career World Cup victory -- six years ago. "She has been runner-up three times this season so we tried to imitate her. Perhaps too closely..." Slovenia's Spela Bracun was a surprising third, crossing in 1:38.03 to reach the podium for the first time in her World Cup career. The Slovenian's previous best result was sixth place in a super-G in Cortina in 1998. "I can't believe it," said the 22-year-old. "No one on the team expected it and when I saw my time on the board I had to look several times before my team told me it was true. "It's like being rewarded for all the bad things I went through before," said Bracun, who suffered torn knee ligaments in 1995 and was unsure whether to return this year after a mediocre performance last season. "I've had bad moments and felt like quitting but this erases everything." Austria's Renate Goetschl was fourth in 1:38.12, ahead of compatriot Michaela Dorfmeister, fifth in 1:38.25. Unheralded Merete Fjeldavlie of Norway was another unexpected presence among the top 10, finishing sixth in 1:38.30. Switzerland's Corinne Rey Bellet delighted the partisan crowd, taking the lead briefly before being pushed back to seventh with 1:38.37. Her compatriot Sylviane Berthod clocked the eighth-fatest time, crossing in 1:38.46. Gerg crossed in 10th place, .75 adrift. With the victory, Kostner climbed to second in the overall World Cup standings where she sits with 419 points, trailing the injured Kostelic by one point. The 17-year-old Kostelic, the surprise leader of the overall World Cup standings, brought her season -- and perhaps her career -- to an early end when she fell coming off the biggest artificial jump on the course, rupturing anterior cruciate knee ligaments, medial ligaments, meniscal cartilage and possibly severed posterior cruciate ligaments as well.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
