Another win for Janica Kostelic

Sansicario, Italy, Feb. 27th - Janica Kostelic celebrated her second World Cup win this season in Sansicario's combined event raced on the lower part of the « Fraiteve Olympic” course. The skier from Zagreb beat her main contender, Anja Paerson, by 43/100 of a second, while Canada's Emily Brydon was 3rd at 1,32 seconds.

The triple combined gold medallist from Salt Lake City, St Moritz and Santa Caterina built-up her success on her outstanding downhill race in which she was much faster than her Swedish rival who lost 81/100 of a second on her in the morning. Austria's Renate Goetschl was 2nd in that downhill part at 8/100 and Brydon 3rd at 78/100.

In the slalom leg won by Sarka Zahrovska, the bronze medallist from Santa Caterina and the new slalom junior World Champion, Paerson clocked the 3rd time beating Kostelic, only 6th, by 38/100 - not enough though to win her third consecutive race in three days.
Austria's Nicole Hosp came in 4th ahead of Lindsey Kildow, who clocked the 6th time only in the downhill. Her teammate Julia Mancuso was 6th ahead of Renate Goetschl and Resi Stiegler.

Janica has nothing to lose

It was an important win for Janica Kostelic who gained twenty World Cup points on Anja Paerson today. She is also looking forward with great excitement for the up-coming Finals in Switzerland. “It will be fun, because I have nothing to lose there,” she explained at the press conference. “I need top-3 finishes in all four events in Lenzerheide to have a chance to beat Anja, but this seems quite difficult. My GS is not so good and I have not scored a podium finish in Super-G this winter. But as long as there is a possibility, I'll give my best to win, just for fun.”

“As I often said, I did not expect such a situation at the season start, and I was not as consistent this winter as I used to be. But I still reached more than I expected especially at the World Championships.”

“I was hoping to win this combined to stay close to Anja in the standings and make everything more interesting in Switzerland. My plan was to achieve a strong downhill, because I didn't feel so confident about making-up much time on her in a single slalom run only. I'm often skiing better in second runs, so I knew that I had to accomplish a great downhill to have a real chance to win this combined. In fact, I skied really well, better than yesterday and this helped me to win the combined. I prefer the traditional combined events with two slalom runs, but today I don't mind only skiing one run because I feel pretty tired. I don't know how I would have dealt with a second run this evening.”

Janica will take a short break at home before training on Sljeme later on this week. “I heard there is much snow there so I may have the chance to do some powder skiing, it would be nice,” she said with a grin. “It's nice to get a week off and relax a little. The week in Lenzerheide will be quite demanding.”

Anja was happy

Anja Paerson was not disappointed at all by her 2nd place because she didn't want to take too many risks in the downhill. “I reached my limits yesterday in the downhill race and I was nervous this morning, I was afraid to ski out or to crash taking again a lot of risks,” she explained afterwards.
“I went for a solid and a smooth downhill run. I was more aggressive in the slalom and I'm pleased by this 2nd place in the combined standings. It's good to have an advance of 63 points in the Overall Standings on Janica before the Finals in Lenzerheide. But it's not so much, I will have to fight hard on the demanding Swiss course to remain out of reach.”

“I'll do my best to win another Overall title - but there is no shame to be 2nd behind such a great champion as Janica in case I don't succeed. I have already reached a lot so far this season with my two gold medals and my World Cup wins in four different specialties. I'm very proud to be able to challenge Janica during the entire season. She is such a great champion and she is having so much fun too. We both enjoy this competition between us a lot. We give our best on the courses but we are good friends before and after the races.”

Another podium for Brydon

Emily Brydon was delighted by her first season World Cup podium - and her first since December 2000, when she was 3rd in a downhill at St Moritz. In February 2001, she suffered a bad crash in downhill at the St Anton World Championships and she needed much time to totally recover from that accident followed by another one some months later.

Last winter, she was 4th in a downhill in Lake Louise, but this winter she didn't achieve anything special. In Santa Caterina, she finished way behind the medals in her events. So this excellent result is very important for her moral. “My 5th place in Saturday's downhill, only 12/100 of a second behind the podium, gave me much momentum,” she said. “I told myself to be more aggressive today to try to win the downhill. I feel really comfortable on this course this morning. I was happy with my 3rd place this morning and I fought hard in the slalom to stay at the top. I didn't expect to remain 3rd yet, it's a very nice performance. I'm looking to come back here for the 2006 Olympics.”

Emily, 19th in the Overall standings so far with 299 points, is qualified in the speed events for the Finals. Two good results in Lenzerheide could help her to reach the crucial limit of 400 points which would help guarantee her a good starting position in all events next season.

The next women's race will take place in Lenzerheide, during the second week of March. Four races in all four specialties will be held in five days in that resort. Each of them will be decisive for the favourites of the Overall standings. Only Finland's Tanja Poutiainen is for the moment sure to win a Crystal Globe. Renate Goetschl, Michaela Dorfmeister, Hilde Gerg or Lindsey Kildow will still be fighting for victory in the speed events, and the women's GS Cup is not decided yet. Anja Paerson, Tina Maze or Poutianen will also be battling for it in Switzerland.

Patrick Lang