Tanja Poutiainen back at the top

Patrick Lang 10.03.2007 17:56 Uhr

After a two-year-long-wait, Tanja Poutiainen finally celebrated another World Cup win today in Zwiesel, Bavaria, where she dominated all her rivals in the last giant slalom prior the Finals at Lenzerheide organized by difficult weather conditions.

The 26-year-old skier from Rovaniemi, who clinched the slalom and giant slalom World Cup titles in 2005, beat by mere 11/100 of a second Austria's Nicole Hosp. Michaela Kirchgasser, the recent winner at Sierra Nevada, in Spain, confirmed her strong form with an excellent 3rd place only 14/100 far from another win.

Another Austrian, Elisabeth Goergl, came in 4th ahead of USA's Julia Mancuso, who has clocked the fastest time in the first leg in the morning.

Anja Paerson was 6th ahead of Germany's promising talent Victoria Regensburg and the new slalom World Cup champion Marlies Schild.

Renate Goetschl finished next-to-last, losing over three seconds as well as the lead in the Overall World Cup standings.

Hosp, who successfully defended her lead in the giant slalom standings with an advance of sixteen points on Poutiainen, is back now in control of the general classification with a total of 1263 points, 19 more than Mancuso, and 61 more than Schild. Goetschl is now 4th at 63 points.

Both runs started with an-hour-delay because of fog in the upper part of the course which had to be shortened. The second run started at 2.15 PM instead of 1.30 PM.

2nd giant slalom win for Tanja
Poutiainen only celebrated another win in a World Cup giant slalom in past years - back in December 2004 at Aspen. After capturing the giant slalom Crystal globe in March 2005, she somehow struggled during the following season yet she still clinched a crucial Olympic silver medal in Sestriere in February 2006.

This season, Tanja amassed a series of strong results in the specialty starting with her 2nd place at Aspen after leading the first run. Two weeks ago, she led again a giant slalom after the first run at Sierra Nevada, but had to settle with 3rd place after a more cautious second run.

Today, she ultimately managed to achieve two aggressive runs in a row to finish ahead of her main rival Nicole Hosp. "I did stick to my plan this time and took a lot of risks in the second run," the Finn explained afterwards. "I didn't forget what happened in Spain and remained focused and determined throughout the entire race today. I feel relieved, it's a huge success for me," she added,

"The past season has been quite frustrating at some occasions, but I always felt able to get back at the top. I was sort of angry against myself this afternoon and I guess it helped me to fight harder. I'm happy to stay in the run for the specialty trophy - I have good memories from Lenzerheide where I collected two crystal globes two years ago. Hosp is really strong but I have nothing to lose from now on. I will try to take a lot of risks there. It will also be the case in tomorrow's slalom!

Hosp fought back
Nicole Hops was glad to reach another podium after clocking a disappointing fifth time only in the morning because of a mistake in the middle section. Yet as in Sierra Nevada, she was again the fastest in the second run to conquer a significant 2nd place worth 80 crucial World Cup points.

"I had no other choice than charging as hard as I could this afternoon, my situation didn't look so good this morning, I could have lost a lot of points today," Hosp said afterwards. "Maybe I need the pressure to fully attack and reach my potential," the giant slalom World Champion added. "It's nice to be back at the top in the Overall standings but it will certainly change again tomorrow. The most important is to remain focused and ski as well as possible. It will again be my plan tomorrow in the slalom."

5th place for Mancuso
Julia Mancuso missed a great opportunity to build-up her lead in the Overall standings after dominating the first leg. The skier from Squaw Valley only clocked the fifteenth best time in the afternoon to move down to 5th place as it was the case three weeks ago at Are where she also dominated the opening leg.

"I made a few mistakes in the second run, I didn't ski as well as I ought to," the Californian said. "The snow was a little grabby and I was sometimes off balanced," she added. "Of course I was looking for a better second run but at the end of the day, I'm still 5th best today."

Julia will have a hard time not to lose more terrain on Hosp in Sunday's slalom which should allow Schild to celebrate another triumph. Another podium could make Hosp almost unbeatable in the Overall standings next week at Lenzerheide.