17th World Cup win for Marlies Schild

Patrick Lang 26.11.2007 08:31 Uhr

Austria's Marlies Schild turned in two solid runs to claim her second Alpine World Cup slalom win of the season on Sunday, the 17th in her career on the World Cup tour.

Schild, winner of the season opening slalom on home snow in Reiteralm, Austria, notched her 15th career slalom win- her 17th in total.

Czech Sarka Zahrobska, the reigning World slalom champion, was a well-beaten second crossing 68/100 of a second behind the winner while Croatia's Ana Jelusic was 3rd with a delay of 69/100.

Finland's Tanja Poutiainen was 4th followed by overall World Cup winner Nicole Hosp of Austria. Skiers from five different teams followed them including former slalom World Champion Anja Paerson from Sweden who came in 10th after clocking a more modest 21st time in the morning leg.

Switzerland's raising slalom star Aita Camastral, 11th, achieved her best ever World Cup result in setting the fastest time in the second run. She started in 42nd position in the first run. She scored her very first points at Reiteralm where she was 19th.

Schild on a roll
Schild, who won now six of her last seven World Cup slaloms, was pretty pleased to remain unbeaten in that specialty so far after her recent triumph at Reiteralm. "I hope this is the start of another winning streak," she said with a big grin after the race. "In fact I feel more confident and stronger too right now than a year ago even if I could not ski as aggressively as I wanted in the first steep pitch."

"My 4th place in Saturday's giant slalom was a nice boost for my mloral. This slalom slope here is quite demanding and I didn't dare to fully attack at the beginning yet I skied the bottom part very well," added the Austrian who regained the lead in the overall World Cup standings.

"I'm looking forward now for the speed events at Lake Louise. It's exciting to ski fast again after this series of technical events," also said Marlies who told the reporters that she will certainly be inspired in Lake Louise by the strong performance of her boy friend Benjamin Raich who finished 2nd in today's super-G race won by Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal.

"It's nice to think that I done better than him today, I sort of beat him," she commented with a smile.

A year ago, both stars managed to win a slalom race on the same site at Levi but they never celebrated a victory on the same day.

With her 15 slaloms victories, Schild moved up in 4th place in the list of top slalom specialists behind Switzerland's Vreni Schneider (34), Croatia's Janica Kostelic (20) and Anja Paerson (18). The self confident skier from Saalfelden should increase that amount in the coming months while battling for her first win in the overall World Cup standings.

Last year she came in a frustrating 2nd behind her team-mate Nicole Hosp after an unexpected mistake in the last slalom at the Finals at Lenzerheide.

Zarhobska and Jelusic back in business

Yet her closest rivals don't desperate to seriously challenge her in the next slalom events. "She certainly amassed much confidence in winning all those races during the last season, it helps her to approach her limits when it really matters," commented Zahrobska who captured her first podium of the season, her 4th in total on the World Cup circuit.

"It's a huge advantage in slalom where it matters so much. I'm satisfied by my race today, my season start has been very good so far. I also did well yesterday in giant slalom where I still want to improve my level. It's important to get so quickly such a positive result, I can build on it and try always harder from now on."

"My goal is to be consistent and ready for a great race at home in Spindleruv Mlyn in January. It will be fun to compete there as the reigning World Champion, I hope a lot of people will show up and make it a big event."

Ana Jelusic's season highlight is taking place a month later, in February, at the slalom scheduled in Sljeme, nearby Zagreb, where she finished 2nd last January. "I want to be totally ready for that night slalom, it's such a huge event for our team," said the skier from Rijeka who was 4th at the FIS World Championships at Are.

"This top-3 finish reinforces my moral after my disappointing race two weeks ago at Reiteralm where I finished far behind the leaders. This slope is very nice and challenging, the first steep part perfectly suits my style," also said the tiny Croat who turns 21 in a month.

"The end of my last season was disappointing, I was sick and I could not fight as hard as I wanted to confirm my potential. But now I'm back where I wanted to be," also said the Croat who moved to California last summer to resume her studies.

The women's World Cup now moves to nearby Lake Louise for the first speed events of the season, a downhill on Saturday followed by a super-G on Sunday.