Anja Paerson aiming for another hattrick

Manuèle Lang 20.12.2007 22:14 Uhr

Less than a week after dominating the recent speed events at St Moritz, Sweden’s Anja Paerson is aiming to win her third consecutive race this week and achieve another of her impressive hattricks in St Anton, Austria, where the last World Cup events prior Christmas are scheduled on Friday and Saturday.

In past years, the two-time Overall World Cup champion already managed to win three consecutive events including last February at the FIS World Championships at Are where she captured three gold medals in a row.

It’s her strongest wish now to remain unbeaten in Friday’s speed event and then celebrate her first World Cup victory in a Super-combined on Saturday. A success in that discipline would allow her to join the exclusive group of champions having excelled in all alpine disciplines.

The 26-year-old champion from northern Taernaby appreciates the demanding “Karl Schranz” course in St Anton which hosted the men’s downhill at the 2001 FIS World Championships. As in St Moritz last week, Anja didn’t clock very fast times in her first two training runs before skipping the third one on Thursday to rest and train slalom.

Paerson was 8th in Tuesday’s first training run captured by Austria’s upcoming talent Maria Holaus, and 6th on Wednesday when USA’s Lindsey Vonn clocked the fastest time of the week ahead of Holaus and Switzerland’s Martina Schild.

Yet Anja’s potential, her experience and her new motivation put her high up in the list of skiers to beat in the coming days.

On Thursday, Nadia Styger, also from Switzerland, was the quickest down the hard packed run only a few hundredths ahead of California’s Julia Mancuso, who nearly crashed into a course worker during her first practise run earlier this week.

A year ago, Mancuso won the first of two downhills at Val d’Isère, France, and finished 2nd in the other one, yet this season the giant slalom Olympic champion finished far from the podium in Lake Louise, Aspen and St Moritz.

Renate Goetschl, the defending downhill and Super-G World Cup champion, has again been very consistent in training during the entire week. The Austrian seems ready to celebrate her first season win after reaching three podiums in the past five speed events in North America and Switzerland. With 46 victories in four disciplines, Goetschl is the most successful World Cup skier in activity.

The 32-year-old veteran only won three of her twenty-four World Cup downhill races in Austria so far and this could well be her last chance to do it again in case she decides to retire at the end of this winter.

“This is great downhill run and I think the women will prove that they deserve competing on a men’s course,” she said this week. “The final steep part is really challenging and exciting, just perfect for veterans like me.”

That last gruelling section punished a few racers today, including Monaco’s Alexandra Coletti, who severely damaged her knee-ligament in a bad crash there. Holaus also fell yet without getting injured. Vonn missed a gate going into that last difficult section but the skier from Park City seems confident after finishing 2nd last week at St Moritz after a small mistake in the middle section of the Corviglia run.

“You have to fight a lot here, it’s a spectacular course but I like it and I’ll go for it,” said the leader in the downhill standings who won the opening speed race at Lake Louise before finishing 4th at Aspen the following week.

Canada’s Britt Janyk, winner at Aspen, was 20th in that last timed trial in which her teammate Kelly Vanderbeek was 6th. Emily Brrydon, 2nd at St Moritz, was 14th.

Defending Overall World Cup champion Nicole Hosp and slalom star Marlies Schild both showed great determination in that last test, clocking the 9th and 7th best times. They aim to finish among the top-10 on Friday before battling for victory in Saturday’s Super-combined. Hosp is actually 2nd in the Overall standings, only four points behind Paerson, and Schild 3rd at 29 points.