Anja Paerson and Martina Ertl moved up

After a series of disappointing results in her best events, Anja Paerson fought back and achieved a superb race in Cortina, missing her first Super-G victory by only a glimpse.

“I'm delighted, this is awesome and was quite unexpected, especially after my crash in Santa Caterina and the bad week I had there,” she said with a big smile. “I was thinking of maybe a top-five finish and never thought about the podium. It means a lot to me because I have worked hard all summer to improve my technique in the speed events. I had some promising results in past races but nothing really smashing. It's a difficult event and I guess I have to be patient.”
“I was for sure very motivated today because the course is really challenging and the weather was so great. It was sunny and the visibility was excellent today, which was not the case in Santa Caterina. I can't attack when I don't see well.”
This outstanding performance helps Anja to pass Janica Kostelic in the Overall standings and get closer to Finland's leader Anja Poutiainen who doesn't compete this week. She has a good chance to regain the lead before the coming slalom race in Zagreb.

55th podium for Martina

It was also a good day for Martina Ertl who finally came back onto the podium after weeks of struggling. This winter the skier from Lenggries skied five times into the top-10 but her most recent results were quite disappointing. She only managed to be 21st in her last two races, a slalom and a downhill in Santa Caterina.
It's the 55th time in her career that the 2001 combined World Champion reached a World Cup podium. A winner in 14 events so far, Martina also clinched the giant slalom World Cup title in 1998.
She was very pleased by her performance which boosts her moral only two weeks before the beginning of the next World Championships in Bormio/Santa Caterina.
”I have been waiting for this, It's good to be back on the podium,” she said afterwards. "I have been struggling during the recent weeks, I was too tense. Yet today, I was able to be relaxed and to enjoy my skiing on this superb course. This is such a great place after all and it's so nice to compete here. I just let my skis run. I didn't try something special, I just attack and had fun.”

6th in Lake Louise, Ertl was a far 19th last month in St Moritz. In Semmering she finished twice among the top 10 but she spent a difficult week in Santa Caterina where she didn't make it into the best 20!
”It's good to get such a result now, its helps me a lot. I'll try to confirm this result on Friday but I'll skip the downhills over the weekend to train and prepare the last technical races in Zagreb and Maribor.”

4th place for Kildow

USA's Lindsey Kildow was a close 4th, only 7/100 behind Ertl. It's another strong result for the 20-year-old speed specialist who was 2nd in St Moritz last month and 3rd here in downhill last winter.
This result moved-up her in the Super-G standings - she is now in 2nd place, only 5 points behind Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister.
”It's important to be consistent and I'm happy to feel that I found back my momentum,” said the skier from Vail who suffered a flu last week. “It's very nice to be back here on this course which brought me luck last year. I'll do my best to reach more podiums this week and stay in the lead in the downhill standings. “
”It's a really sweet hill. I like the banked turns a lot,” also explained Kildow, who is enjoying a breakout season on the World Cup tour.
”I didn't ski that well today,” she added. ”I made some mistakes - I caught an edge on one of the rollers in the middle of the bottom flats - and I thought there was no way my time was going to hold up. I caught my edge and then I went too straight and I was kind of jamming on the flats.”
”But then girls kept making mistakes at the bottom, too, and were slower than I was, so I guess it's okay. It's nice to make a couple of mistakes and still be fourth. I'm really excited, I'm psyched we get multiple opportunities on the same hill, get to know yourself and where you can clean up, get to be really comfortable.”

Her next fights with Renate Goetschl and the other favorites in the coming day promise to be quite spectacular.

Manuèle Lang