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Unimpressed Women not awed by Innsbruck downhill course
Posted: Wednesday February 23, 2000 10:29 AM
INNSBRUCK, Austria (Reuters) -- Double world champion Isolde Kostner of Italy posted fastest times on Wednesday in two training runs for Friday's World Cup downhill, despite reducing her speed well ahead of the finish line. The season's four-times winner clocked one minute 37.41 seconds before storming down in 1:36.38 on the Olympic Patscherkofel slope which will host women's races for the first time this weekend. The site of the men's 1964 and 1976 Olympic downhill races produced illustrious gold medallists Egon Zimmerman and Franz Klammer, but the women were relatively unimpressed. Austrian overall World Cup leader and downhill winner at Are, Sweden, last week, Renate Goetschl, said the piste which since the 1976 Olympics only hosted a men's Super G last winter, was among the "easier" courses on the circuit. "It's difficult to be fast on this slope. It's a shame we don't have more jumps," said reigning downhill world champion Goetschl, who posted the day's 28th and seventh best times. Her closest rival in the overall battle with only three weeks of competition remaining, compatriot Michaela Dorfmeister, was the 21st and 10th quickest. Germany's Regina Haeusl, the current leader of the downhill standings after coming in second in four of the winter's seven races, first clocked the second best time of 1:37.56 and the fourth quickest of 1:37.36. Also impressive on a gloriously sunny day in the Tyrolean provincial capital was Canada's Melanie Turgeon who was third fastest in both runs down 2,605 meter-long piste. Women will have a third training run on Thursday before competitions begin with Friday's downhill followed by Super G races on Saturday and Sunday.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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