Another win for Tanja Poutiainen in Croatia.

Zagreb/Sljeme, Jan.20th - Finland's Tanja Poutiainen won her season's fourth World Cup race on Zagreb's skiing playground, a 1000-meter-high hill named Sljeme where the first ever Croatian World Cup competition took place Thursday afternoon in front of more than 20'000 excited spectators.

After a very aggressive second run, the Finish champion beat by 7/100 of a second USA's Kristina Koznick and by nearly half a second Austria's Marlies Schild, leader in the first run.
Yet the Croatian fans were left disappointed when Janica Kostelic failed to finish the first leg of that dramatic and perfectly organized race. Janica, who learned to ski on those slopes with her parents and her brother Ivica, straddled a gate just 17 seconds into her run.
The triple Olympic champion skied slowly down the course afterwards before stopping and collapsing in the snow in tears. Fortunately for the shocked spectators, two of her teammates, Nika Fleiss and Ana Jelusic, managed to reach the top-10!

Tanja back in the lead!

Another famous victim of the treacherous first run was Sweden's Anja Paerson, who skied out in the upper part of the course. She lost much time on the favorites after moving-up to correctly pass all missed gates.
Germany's Monika Schmuderer-Bergmann also went out.

This allowed Poutiainen to regain the lead in the Overall World Cup standings and to reinforce her position at the top of the slalom standings.
She has a good chance to be assured to clinch her first World Cup title next Sunday in Slovenia's Maribor, where the next slalom race will take place. For the moment, she has a lead of 120 points on Schild with only three more slalom races scheduled on the program. Another great result would put her out of reach of her main rivals.

Nicole Hosp found back part of her form to come in 4th ahead of Switzerland's Sonja Nef who achieved one of her best races in the last two years. The 2001 giant slalom World Champion is now back in the first slalom seed after her excellent runs.

American Sarah Schleper, 2nd in the first run, had to be content at the end with her 6th place after a series of errors made at the beginning of her second run.

8th podium for Poutiainen

Poutiainen, a solid 3rd after the first run, was off the pace in the first part of her second leg but made-up time on the last section of the floodlit course. “It was a perfect way for me to come back after taking a nice break at home,” she said after the race. “On the first run I made a few mistakes and I didn't ski as well as I wanted,” Tanja added.
“Yet lots of people had problems with the challenging terrain. It was really difficult. To be close enough to the leader after the first run was good as I knew I had the strength for the second run. I feel fresher now that two weeks ago in Santa Caterina. I was aiming for full attack in the second run and my plan turned out perfectly,” also explained 24-year-old who reached her eighth podium of the winter - two more than during all her previous her World Cup seasons! She finished all her races so far, most of them on the podium!

Tanja is now looking forward to become the first skier to beat Anja Paerson in Maribor where the Swede has won five consecutive races in the last three years. “It's a nice hill and I can win there too,” she said at the press conference. “These two races are very important to me, it would be great to keep this pace for a while. For the moment, I don't think about the Worlds in Santa Caterina or the Overall World Cup title. My main goals for the moment are to clinch the Crystal Cups in the technical events, because it's more significant to me. Medal events are exciting too, but in a one-day race, everything can happen!”
”I'll of course do my best in Italy to clinch my first medal though. I would certainly feel very relaxed if I could travel to Santa Caterina with two more good results in Maribor.”

Tanja, whose victory was worth 50'000 Euros, the highest prize-money ever paid to a winner in a women's race, also congratulated the organisers for the great job done before and during the race.
“It's was really an awesome competition, a great way to promote our sport,” she said. “The course is technically very demanding and well prepared, and the spectators extremely supportive. The entire setting was excellent and I hope to come back soon here. Last year, I won the first race ever held in Finland, so I add another “Premiere” on my list.”
“Of course, I feel sorry for Janica who must be so sad. I can understand what must be going through her mind. It's just too bad for her because she was certainly very motivated and happy to compete here today in front of her fans. Hopefully she will have more luck next time!”

Kristina Koznick was happy too

Kristina Koznick lost in the final part the chance to win her first race of the season. She reached her third podium of the winter. “I skied really well during most of my second leg,” she said. “I definitely went for it. I'm more than consistent this winter. I was skiing this way coming into the season. I had some troubles in December with my rib I injured in falling in St Moritz, but I'm feeling completely back.”
“Of course, I'm a little frustrated because I'm not winning, but I showed too much respect in the final steep part. I strongly wanted to come to the finish and see the number 1 on the board. That's what happened. But Tanja Poutiainen is skiing so well at the moment. It's definitely difficult to beat her.”

“I still have another chance in Maribor. That's really positive! I'm pretty excited to go there. Those races are important also because they are the last ones before the World Championships. It's always important to know where you are before such an event. Especially in GS, where I didn't find my rhythm since my crash in December. I wish to get another good result to also qualify in this event for the World Championships.”
“I'm going home after Slovenia. We go to Lake Placid to train which is great because there are my sponsors so, we'll have a great camp there for a week.”

As Poutiainen, Koznick had only positive words for the event which took place in and outsider Zagreb. “It has been a real party for us,” she said “it already started in a very impressive way yesterday at the bib draw which attracted a huge crowd. We were really impressed and all excited when we came here. At the beginning, we didn't know what to expect here, but soon we found out that it was perfectly organized. We also appreciate that the top-30 received a bonus from the organizers. This is wonderful.”
“I would have been very happy to make 50'000 Euro as Tanja, but 25'000 are not bad either!”

Janica was sad

During the crowded press conference, Janica Kostelic came by to congratulate the winners and hug them. The triple Olympic Champion, who missed last season because of knee injuries and surgery to remove her thyroid gland, was very disappointed by her misfortune.
“I still don't understand what took place on the course,” the 23-year-old said before while answering questions from the Croatian media. “How I could straddle that gate is incredible as I was so comfortable and skiing so well.”
“I'm especially disappointed for my fans who came here hoping I would do well,” also said the two-time Overall World Cup champion who stayed to watch the second leg from the slopes.

She will try to celebrate a nice revenge next weekend in Maribor where she already did well in the past. Yet, she will not be the only one - Anja Paerson also hope to fight back with class.

Patrick Lang