Lindsey Vonn nearer to first Overall victory

Manuèle Lang 13.03.2008 20:37 Uhr

America’s Lindsey Vonn missed by only three points the possibility to nail her first Overall World Cup title in today’s Super-G won by Switzerland’s Fabienne Suter.

Vonn, who was in the lead until Sutter’s arrival, is now 197 points ahead of Germany’s Maria Riesch who came in 6th in that race to clinch the Super-G World Cup crown.

A top-15 finish in any of the next two technical events would allow her to be out of reach for her friend in the general classification.

It was Vonn’s best performance this season in Super-G. “It was definitely a good time to pull that great Super-G performance, I fought hard for a top result here today,” said Vonn afterwards.

“I've been working with Rossignol on my skis and it paid off. We did some testing before Crans-Montana and I changed my ski setup around a little bit. And my skis were really fast today!"

The course was rugged and soft but Vonn was happy with her tactics. “My goal was to ski solid and not risk a lot, just to stay ahead of the course,” she explained. “I was active and aggressive with the way I skied. But I kept my line conservative in places. It was cool that we were able to run the men's course.”

While a win would have wrapped up the Overall World Cup title for Vonn mathematically, she still has a virtual lock. Riesch is the only remaining contender yet the German would need to win both Friday's slalom and Saturday's giant slalom which would be a huge surprise since the German never reached a giant slalom podium so far in her career.

“Nicole Hosp came up to me in the winner's circle to congratulate me on a great season,” added Vonn. “She was really, really nice. I know she was hurting. She was a very gracious champion today and that was cool. Maria also congratulated me on the Overall and I did the same for her on the Super-G title.”

“It was quite exciting to be in the lead and wait for the race to end,” also said the skier from Minnesota. “I did the math myself and found out that I could win the big cup if I manage to remain in the lead until. People started to come to me to congratulate me but I told them to wait a few more minutes. It was tough but I was aware that my time could be improved. I can live with it – the most important was that Nicole Hosp didn’t finish ahead of me.”

Lindsey is aiming for a top-15 result in Friday’s slalom to finish the season on a high note in that specialty. She only scored three times in slalom this winter, including a 17th place at Maribor in January.