First win for Chiara Costazza

Manuèle Lang 30.12.2007 10:32 Uhr

Six weeks after scoring her first podium finish at Reiteralm, Italy’s Chiara Costazza celebrated her maiden World Cup win at Lienz where she beat two of the strongest slalom specialists of the field after dominating both runs.

The 23-year-old racer from Pozzo di Fassa, in Trentino, successfully defended her lead from the first run to finish 68/100 of a second ahead of Nicole Hosp, the defending Overall World Cup champion while Finland’s Tanja Poutiainen was 3rd at 86/100.

Germany’s Maria Riesch was an impressive 4th – by far her best result since her only slalom victory in Levi in March 2004. She clocked the second fastest time in the afternoon.

Croatia’s Ana Jelusic was a solid 5th ahead of France’s surprising Sandrine Aubert who wore bib 25 in the first leg in which she clocked the second best time behind Costazza,

Marlies Schild, the winner here two years ago, was one of many skiers failing to finish the first run. The Austrian has been struggling in recent weeks in her best specialty. In St Anton she also skied out in the slalom leg while fighting for victory in the Super-combined event.

Lindsey Vonn was the only US skier to come through both runs. She finished 25th and gave over her lead in the Overall World Cup standings to Hosp, who has now an advantage of 34 points on her.

Riesch is now 3rd at 64 points - 6 more than Julia Mancuso who made a major mistake in the first run and missed the cut for the second by only 7/100.

The Bavarian from Garmisch-Partenkirchen seems to have recovered part of her huge potential which helped her to win three races in three different disciplines in 2004. She surely has a fair chance to fight for a podium finish in the Overall standings.

Another win for Italy
With a total of four victories since the season start, Italy’s team is definitely playing a key role on the women’s World Cup tour. Denise Karbon’s impressive achievements strongly inspired her teammates who are now taking more risks when cruising down the slopes.

Costazza, already the fastest skier in the first leg at Reiteralm before finishing 3rd, bravely defended her chances in the afternoon after putting a lot of pressure on herself to win her first major race. “I felt ready for this victory since Reiteralm, I badly wanted to win today and I didn’t let the expectations affect my concentration,” she explained afterwards. “I just let the ski go – there is no other way today to win a World Cup race,” she added.

“Denise’s strong season start boosted our confidence, our team is very motivated, we push and encourage each other all the time. It’s of course a huge result for me,” also said the Rossignol skier who is the first Italian woman in more than ten years to win a World Cup slalom.

In March 1997 Lara Magoni won a slalom at Vail during the World Cup Finals in Colorado, tying with the Overall winner that year, Sweden’s Pernilla Wiberg.

Costazza, since December 2002 on the World Cup tour, scored her first points at Semmering, Austria, in December 2004 when she finished 15th. A year later she made it among the best 10 at Aspen, and then was 4th at Zagreb in January 2007. “It took me a while but I also believed in my potential,” she explained. “It was just a matter of time. Last summer, we trained well in South America thanks to the support of our new head coach, Michael Maier, and it helped us a lot. We all feel very confident and ready to fight hard.”

Another podium for Nicole Hosp
Nicole Hosp admitted it was difficult for her to win her second slalom in a row today after making two big mistakes during her second run but she was pleased to reach the podium. “It was really a nice slalom race today, the organisers did a great job and I fought hard to achieve a better performance than yesterday,” she said afterwards. “In Aspen I had an almost perfect second run, but here I made too many mistakes while Chiara skied very well. It’s good that we have four technical races coming up now, I want to regain my form in giant slalom which used to be my best specialty,” added the Austrian.

After New Year, the women’s tour is moving to Spindleruv Mlyn in the Czech Republic and then to Maribor, in Slovenia, for a series of technical events. Reigning World Champion Sarka Zahrobska, who failed to qualify today – a first for her since her debuts on the World Cup tour in December 2002 – is aiming for revenge in front of her fans. The Czech champion, who reached the top-10 in all past slalom since November 2006, was a superb 2nd at Panorama earlier this season.

Finland’s Tanja Poutiainen also wishes to win again after reaching her 25th podium in the World Cup tour. “Such a result as this one is good for my confidence but I know I can ski faster,” said the 2005 slalom and giant slalom World Cup champion. “I definitely need to be tougher and more aggressive.”

The New Year break should also help Marlies Schild to recoup and regain her momentum along her boy friend Benjamin Raich. The former “slalom princess” who won seven races out of nine last winter, showed her emotion in the finish line after her disastrous first run. She cried in the arms of Austria’s Ski President Mr. Peter Schroeksnadel who did his best to comfort her. “Marlies was very fast prior her problems, she trying so hard to be perfect all the time,” he said afterwards. “She just needs a smooth and strong run in the coming weeks to get going again.”