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Rainer Schoenferder

Austria's Rainer Schoenfelder, the surprising winner in today's slalom, completed another weekend sweep for the impressive Austrian ski team. In an aggressive come-from-behind success, Schoenfelder beat Norway's Kjetil Aamodt, the leader in the slalom World Cup standings, by 9/100 of a second. Veteran Ole Kristian Furuseth (NOR) was 3rd at 13/100.

The 22-year-old Schoenfelder, 9th after the first leg, achieved an outstanding second run down the steep slalom slope at this Black Forest resort to score the powerful Austrian squad's sixteenth success this season. For the first time, Schoenfelder used a short ski of 1.70m, produced last week by Atomic and never before used in racing. The "Red-and-Whites" now have six consecutive World Cup wins since Kitzbuhel. With fifteen events left, they are on course to improve their record of 25 wins in 37 races from a single season.

"For sure, it was a nice surprise for me," said the Austrian who had never before reached the podium in a World Cup race. His best result before Sunday was a 4th place last year in Slovenia's Kranjska Gora. "I believed in my chances to reach the podium this winter because I have been very consistent since the start of the season," he added.

The aggressive Schoenfelder, from the southern Austrian province of Carinthia, had an average first run which left him 89/100 of a second behind the leader. But on the afternoon leg, held in warm, spring-like conditions, he was able to make the best of the snow, which then worsened for the leaders from the first run.

"It was good for me that the race-jury decided to reverse the top-15 in the second run, instead of the top-30 as usual," said Schoenfelder. "The course was not too damaged when I started and I took a lot of risks to improve my position. I was aiming for the top-5 this time so I'm delighted by this success. I had nothing to lose."

Schoenfelder also said that his new carver skies had played a big role in his success. They are some 20cm shorter than what he's used to, but he had no problem adapting his technique. He is the latest surprise from Austria's rich stable of young talents. Two weeks ago 20-year-old newcomer Mario Matt upset all the favorites in only his third World Cup race, winning the treacherous slalom in Kitzbuhel. Matt, 12th after the first leg, finished 4th with a brilliant second run that was even faster than Schoenfelder's impressive second run. Switzerland's Didier Plaschy was the only top specialist who failed to end this seventh slalom of the season. He skied out in the second run.

Patrick Lang