ALPINE:

Gut check: Swiss teen upends Vonn in super-G

Jan. 9, 2011 

ALTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, Austria — Lara Gut shrugged off recent off-course troubles to win a women's World Cup super-G race on Sunday for her second career victory. Canada’s Britt Janyk was ninth.

The 19-year-old Swiss had a near-flawless run on the demanding Kaelberloch course to finish in 1 minute, 12.82 seconds and beat defending overall champion Lindsey Vonn by 0.53.

"It's an incredible feeling," said Gut, who took her maiden win in a super-G in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in Dec. 2008.

The Canadian women enjoyed one of their better days on the speed circuit this season, with Janyk’s top-10 the highlight, and Marie-Michele Gagnon scoring points in 30th place. Georgia Simmerling was 35th.

Gut missed the entire Olympic season because of a dislocated hip. This season, she made the headlines for a quarrel with the Swiss ski federation, which suspended her for two races for publicly criticizing a coach and ignoring warnings to comply with guidelines on wearing official team clothes.

"After the last two years, this is really good for me," Gut said. "I love this course as I won my first junior world championship medal here."

Gut, who started 24th after all the favourites had gone, led Vonn's time throughout her run and built almost too much speed on the turny course.

"I had to brake a little to make a double gate toward the end," Gut said.

Vonn was disappointed to see her leading time beaten by the Swiss teenager, but said she was not surprised by Gut's performance.

"I knew she was going to have a good run and thought my time wasn't good enough to hold up," said Vonn, who won the only previous super-G this season in December in Lake Louise, Alberta.

Vonn lost speed as she almost fell in a right turn and had both hands in the snow to avoid crashing.

"I am happy with second," she said. "I made a couple of mistakes today and almost fell on the bottom. I just caught some soft snow and almost went on my hip. Thankfully I finished the race."

Gut's teammate Dominique Gisin was 0.72 seconds behind in third.

World Cup leader Maria Riesch took sixth and remained on top of the standings. The German has 923 points, followed by Vonn with 827.

Former overall champion Nicole Hosp came close to a stunning victory as she posted the fastest intermediate times but lost her line at the bottom part to finished fifth.

Janyk, who came out of the starting gate with bib No. 2, crossed the finish line with a time of 1:14.26 seconds for a season-best ninth-place finish.

"It was a good race, I'm really happy," said Janyk. "I had an early bib today, which can be good because the track is clean, but that also means that you don't get a report so you really need to trust your inspection. I was really good in the tough turns so that helped me."

The last time Janyk was in the top 10 at a World Cup race was last January at Haus im Ennstal, Austria, when she finished 10th in the downhill event.

"It was a tight race and I'm definitely going in the right direction as I am now counting the hundredth of seconds and not the seconds between me and the leader," added Janyk.

This is only the second super-G race of the season as two past events were cancelled due to Mother Nature. The last time the women were on their super-G skis was at Lake Louise, with Janyk finishing in 33rd place.

"My confidence is getting back to where it should be and we made adjustments to my equipment right after Lake Louise so I feel better on my skis. We had good training in the past weeks and right now I just need to trust my skis, try to have fun and race hard," added Janyk.

For  Gagnon, who finished 30th in 1:15.70, it was her second time scoring FIS points for a World Cup super-G. Her first race was in Lake Louise when she finished 27th.

The women's circuit continues in nearby Flachau with a night slalom event on Tuesday.  S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Altenmarket-Zauchensee women's World Cup super-G results