Another win for Denise Karbon

Patrick Lang 25.11.2007 01:01 Uhr

Italy’s Denise Karbon celebrated another impressive victory today in Canada’s Panorama where she beat by 42/100 of a second Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl while Manuela Moelgg, another Italian, came in 3rd with a delay of half a second.

Slalom expert Marlies Schild, also from Austria, was 4th only a few hundredths away from the podium ahead of her younger teammate Eva-Maria Brem who started in 37th position in the first run.

It was a tough day for other favourites as Nicole Hosp, the defending Overall World Cup champion. The Austrian lost her balance in the middle of her second run and skied out of the course, losing much time on her rivals she clearly dominated in the first leg. She clocked the fastest time in the morning with a lead of 53/100 on Nicole Gius but after her mistake she had to be content with a far 16th place at the end of the race.

Olympic Champion Julia Mancuso was the best US racer in 10th place while Anja Paerson, a former outstanding giant slalom specialist was a far 17th. Her younger colleague Jessica Lindell-Vikarbi reached an encouraging 7th place, her best finish in that specialty in recent years.

2 in 2 for Karbon!
Karbon, whose career has been plagued by several knee injuries after her victory in Alta Badia in December 2003, broke again her fibula last March after clinching an emotional bronze medal at the 2007 Are Ski World Championships.

“I can’t believe I won again, this is really wonderful,” she exulted after the race. “I was not so confident this morning because the slope didn’t look too challenging at first sight. I feel more comfortable on steeper and more challenging terrain. In fact this morning, I even took a photo of my red leader bib which I received after my victory at Soelden last month because I was afraid I would lose it today.”

“I didn’t ski very aggressively this morning, my startnumber 1 was surely not an advantage but I was happy not to have lost too much time on the leaders. In the second leg I was able to take more risks and charge all the way down. It was an outstanding run and I was really pleased by my performance even though I was not sure to win the race prior the start of Nicole Hosp. I was already happy to be 2nd or 3rd.”

“Nicole was really unlucky. She skied tremendously well in the first run which was quite long and difficult because the snow was sometime very slick and sometimes more aggressive.”

“It’s certainly a remarkable success for me – I enjoyed it so much also because one of my teammates was also on the podium next to me. We all trained well this summer and we are all very proud to have done so well since the beginning of the season,” also said the new leader in the Overall World Cup standings.

“It’s a sweet revenge after all my injuries, but they made me fighting very hard too. I learned a lot during those difficult years and now I feel much stronger and tougher too. Last summer I worked out hard with a small group of skiers which also included Tanja Poutiainen along her former trainer, Michel Bont. He put together a nice training program for us which made us practising unusual things including difficult mountain climbing in south of France. It was very interesting and it taught me to be tougher with me.”

“After this win, I can start dreaming about much more including fighting hard for the giant slalom World Cup. It’s just too bad that we have to wait so long for the next giant slalom race. It’s only planned late December at Lienz not to far from home!”

So far, the “Squadra Azzurra” is the only team which managed to score podiums finishes in all the three races hold so far in Soelden, Reiteralm and Panorama,

“We are ready to get another one tomorrow in slalom,” predicted a relaxed and hilarious Manuela Moelgg, who achieved her best ever giant slalom result ever. She was 4th at Lenzerheide last March. A few years ago, she was 2nd in slalom at Aspen but health problems prevented her to excel at that level in recent season. She often feels much pain at her back.

She is the sister of Manfred Moelgg, one of the top-slalom specialists on the men’s tour. He was 3rd two weeks ago at Reiteralm. “Each of us tries to be the first to win a World Cup race, it’s a fun competition between us,” she added.

With three skiers in the top-5, the Austrian also achieved a solid team-performance despites Hosp’s failure to win again. Goergl, who scored her tenth podium finish on the World Cup tour, was pleased to return at the top after her rather disappointing past season.

“It’s a good feeling to be back, I missed it a lot last year,” she explained. “I have been struggling but I changed my ski supplier and now things are going much better for me with Head. I felt very strong in giant slalom prior the season start and I already showed it at Soelden where I finished 9th with a big mistake. I aim to keep improving my form also in the other disciplines. I skied well also in Super-G and downhill last summer.”

On Sunday a slalom race is scheduled on the lower part of the slope which should fit Marlies Schild whose confidence was strongly boosted today with her 4th place. After her impressive win at Reiteralm two weeks ago, she seeks to begin another winning streak this winter. Hosp, 2nd in Reiteralm, Italy’s Chiara Costazza, 3rd in Austria, Moegg, USA’s Resi Stiegler, 12th today, World Champion Sarka Zahrobska or Sweden’s Therese Borssen should be some of her main contenders.