Austria gets skiing gold - Ben Clatworthy, Racing Correspondent
Sunday February 21, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

In another crash filled race Andrea Fischbacher of Austria was crowned champion in the Women's Super-G event.

Britain's Chemmy Alcott finished in a disappointing 20th place.
 
A tough and icy course claimed many victims with 8 of the top 30 racers not making it down to the finish.

The women's Downhill earlier in The Games also had a high number of crashes.

5 of the first 11 competitors came out over Ladner's Roll where setting up for the next turn before the jump was vital for success. T

It's common that on-piste coaches report changes to the line inspected earlier in the morning over a radio to the competitors waiting at the start. The advice obviously paid off as quickly the finish rate increased.

Alcott was behind from the start and after a slow mid-section of the course failed to close the gap on Julia Mancuso, USA, finishing almost 2 seconds off the pace.

A clean and composed run by Maria Riesch of Germany put her in the lead and 0.04 seconds up on Julia Mancuso, however a powerful, but not uneventful run from Austria's Elisabeth Görgl put her in the lead.

However it was too good to be true as Speed demon from the USA, Lindsey Vonn, followed next racing on male Super-G skis and took the lead by over a quarter of a second with a lighting fast time of 1:20.88.

Vonn may have felt safe at the top, but then came Andrea Fischbacher from Austria, who finished the Downhill in 4th and took the lead of the race by a massive 0.74 seconds.

The crowds were quickly silenced with nobody expecting the Austrian to finish with such a fast time, despite her lying third in this season's super G World Cup standings.

Slovenia's Tina Maze raced 22nd and finished her run in 2nd place, 0.49 up on Fischbacher, and moving Vonn into bronze position and that's how the race finished. Johanna Schnarf of Italy finished the race in 4th position.

Anja Pärson who had a horrific crash in the Downhill on Wednesday and then came back to take bronze in the Super Combined the next day finished the race in 11th place.

It was a nasty blow to the Austrian Elisabeth Goergl, whose brilliant recovery from her faulty start almost deserved a birthday medal but Lindsey Vonn surely must be left questioning whether, with her least preferred technical disciplines of the slalom and giant slalom competitions remaining, her chances of another Olympic gold are finished in Vancouver and for the 2010 games.

Chemmy gives it her all

After the race Chemmy Alcott said it was a challenging course.

“The hill is so tough,” she said.  “It’s a really fast course and it was a really tough race, but I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t want an easy hill.  It’s a really good course, they’ve used the terrain really well.

“It was definitely challenging and I love a challenge. I didn’t really go for it enough. 

“I made a judgement error and lost a ridiculous amount of speed,” she added.  “ You can’t make any mistakes here. This is the Olympic Winter Games and everyone is lifting their game.

“It’s ski racing and it’s so exciting,” she added. “It’s great to be part of this Olympic Winter Games. We’re really enjoying skiing, challenging ourselves and lifting ourselves up to another level.”

This weekend the excitement turns to the Men's Super Combined races, which consist of one run, Downhill and one run Slalom. Great Britain's Ed Drake will start with bib 37.

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