Maribor - Golden Fox Races.

3rd win for Tina Maze

Maribor, Slovenia, Jan. 22nd - Slovenia's Tina Maze delighted her home fans today with a superb victory in Maribor's classical giant slalom, her third this winter. The 21-year-old Maze beat by 22/100 of a second Italy's Karen Putzer while Germany's Martina Ertl is 3rd almost a full second behind them.

The other top-favourites finished behind them - Anja Paerson was 4th - her worst result for a long time. The defending World Cup champion won the six last competitions on the Pohorje course since 2002!
Finland's Tanja Poutiainen, 3rd after the first run, was seventh yet she kept the lead in the Overall and giant slalom World Cups. Tomorrow, she has a chance to nail her first World Cup title with another victory.
Spain's Marie-Jose Rienda-Contreras was 11th, Janica Kostelic a distant 21st and Sonja Nef, a winner here in 2002, 23rd.
Austria's Marlies Schild didn't qualify for the second run, losing over three seconds on Maze in the first leg. Some of them where slowed down by strong gusts of wind in their first run.
American Julia Mancuso was an excellent 5th. Her teammate Lindsey Kildow, who has picked up a series of good results in speed events this season, finished 9th - her best World Cup result in a technical discipline.

First Slovenian GS win

Tina Maze, who clocked the fastest times in both runs, became the first racer to win in Maribor under the Slovenian flag since Urska Hrovat triumphed in a slalom in 1994. She expressed her joy in unorthodox fashion with cartwheels in the finish area.
The only woman from the region to win a giant slalom in the resort previously was Mateja Svet but her victory came in 1990 when she was racing as a Yugoslavian.
“I'm breathless but it is such a good feeling to win on my home course, I have been dreaming of this since I was a child,” said Maze who has picked up wins at Santa Caterina earlier this winter and St Moritz.
“I perfectly know this course but last year was completely different for me when I finished 24th. I felt that I had let people down, I think I have corrected that now,” she added.

Maze had to take all risks to remain out of reach in the afternoon after a superb second run from Karen Putzer who looks to be hitting her form just in time for next week's World Championships in Bormio and Santa Caterina in Italy. The tiny Italian, who was injured last year at her hip, reached her first podium since the 2003 Finals at Lillehammer where she won the giant slalom race.

With the large and vocal crowd cheering her on, Maze answering with a fast and technically flawless display to take the honours. She warmly thanked her fans afterwards and said they had played a role in her memorable triumph. “They were really loud, you get much energy when are you coming down and you hear the crowd cheering you on - I was almost losing strength at the end but the crowd really pushed me on,” also said Tina, who was 5th in the giant slalom at the 2003 World Championships in St Moritz.

She is will definitely be the skier to beat in three weeks at Santa Caterina. The last Slovenian woman the clinch a medal at Worlds was Hrovat in 1996 in Sierra Nevada where she came in 3rd. In 2001, Mitja Kunc was 3rd in slalom at St Anton.

This last GS race prior to Bormio/Santa Caterina was also marked by the strong results of several young competitors as Jessica Lindell-Vikarby (Sweden, 13th with bib 58), Nadia Fanchini (Italy, 14th with bib 49) or Maria Pietilae-Holmer (Sweden, 17th with bib 44).

Manuèle Lang