First victory for Kathrin Zettel

Manuèle Lang 26.11.2006 14:29 Uhr

Kathrin Zettel who celebrated her first career World Cup victory today, winning the first giant slalom of the season. A year ago, the talented champion from the eastern part of the country enjoyed her very first podiums on the World Cup tour both in giant slalom and slalom.

Zettel, who had been on the World Cup podium eight times during the last season, achieved an amazing second run to beat by 28/100 of a second Finland's Tanja Poutiainen, the leader after the opening leg.

Another Austrian, Michaela Kirchgasser came in 3rd ahead of Nicole Hosp and Sweden's Maria Pietilae Holmner. It was Kirchgasser's first World Cup podium.

US Olympic Champion Julia Mancuso, who underwent hip surgery last summer, achieved a promising comeback in finishing in 7th place.

Other favourites struggled as Anja Paerson who skied out as Austria's Marlies Schild, the recent winner in a slalom at Levi, while Slovenia's Tina Maze was a far 18th.

Zettel in the lead
Zettel, 3rd at Levi, Finland, earlier this month, took the lead in the Overall World cup standings - quite an achievement for the 20-year-old Austrian who had a hard time believing that she finally won her first races.

"I'm speechless and so happy too," she said afterwards. "I've been so often on the podium last winter and I was afraid to finish second again," she added. "It means a lot to me, it's a fabulous moment. I was so nervous. I knew I was in a good position to win but when I saw how Tanja was racing this morning I also thought there's no way I can beat her if I don't take all risks in the afternoon. It was my main goal this season to win a World Cup race, now I can be quite relaxed and aim for more success."

Last year, Zettel was very close to capture her first win in slalom at Maribor, but she skied out in the second run. In February, she failed to medal at the Turin Olympics, finishing 4th in combined and 7th in giant slalom.

Poutiainen, the last racer on course in the afternoon, prevented another Austrian sweep, but she clearly expected more after her impressive first run. On the other hand, it's her best result in that specialty since her 2nd place at the 2006 Olympics. She won that race in November 2004.

"I had some good runs last year, but I was not consistent enough to reach as many podiums as two years ago," said the skier from Rovaniemi who clinched the World Cup titles in both technical specialties in 2005." For sure, that's not bad, but I was fighting for my fist win for a long time. At least I skied better than in Levi two weeks ago. "

In Sunday's slalom, the Austrian should again be difficult to beat. Anja Paerson, who underwent knee surgery last spring in nearby Vail, will as usual give her best to get closer to the podium. The Swede, a two-time winner in slalom here, was only 12th in Levi. The reigning slalom Olympic champion was expecting more from herself today. "It's high altitude here, the snow was aggressive and the course was quite challenging," she said. "I really felt in good shape coming into that race today. I'm sorry to have skied out the way I did. I need to more races to get my rhythm back."

Manuèle Lang