ALPINE:

Poutiainen, Riesch share Flachau night slalom win, Goodman 14th

Jan. 11, 2011

FLACHAU, Austria — Germany's Maria Riesch and Finland's Tanja Poutiainen shared a slalom victory Tuesday at a World Cup slalom run at night.

Lindsey Vonn, the three-time overall champion, straddled a gate and failed to finish her first run for the fourth straight race. Riesch extended her lead over Vonn in the overall standings to 196 points.

Riesch and Poutiainen finished in a combined time of 1 minute, 42.52 seconds. Nastasia Noens of France was 0.52 back in third for her first podium finish.

Canada's Anna Goodman had a solid day, finishing 14th to improve from a 26th-place first-run effort.

The course was set by U.S. women's slalom head coach Trevor Wagner, but Vonn never looked comfortable from the start. She was already 0.80 behind Poutiainen's time when she went out after 25 seconds.

"My slalom troubles continue, another disappointing slalom race for me," Vonn wrote on her Facebook page. "I am not exactly thrilled right now, but I have been training really well and the bad luck has to turn around eventually, I hope."

Julia Mancuso finished 4.12 seconds off the leading time in 44th. That left Sarah Schleper as the only American to qualify for the second run, but she crashed out.

Riesch, the Olympic champion, was third after the opening leg and trailed leader Poutiainen by 0.41 seconds. She put in a flawless final run for her seventh World Cup slalom victory but only the first since November 2009 in Levi, Finland.

"I thought Tanja would be out of reach, this is just unbelievable," said Riesch, who had finished second in four slaloms this season. "Many times, things went wrong for me in the second run, so I am very glad now."

Riesch did not ski cleanly in the first run. Her right ski went in the air but the German avoided skiing out.

"I am just very happy that I made it to the finish," she said. "The course is really icy so you have to be wary throughout."

Poutiainen earned her 11th World Cup victory. It was her sixth in slalom, but first since February 2008 in Zagreb, Croatia.

"I've been skiing really well all season but just came short every time," Poutiainen said. "I am over the moon it all worked out today and I hope I can build on this for the rest of the season."

Riesch also went to the top of the slalom standings, with Austria's Marlies Schild skiing out in her second run and failed to score points. Schild won on this course last year and had won four of the previous five slalom races this season.

Nicole Hosp of Austria, a former overall champion, and 2007 world champion Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic both skied out after missing a gate in the opening run.

Goodman, of Pointe Claire, Que., laid down a solid first run and then attacked the course the second time around to record a combined time of 1:45.94 for her best result of the season.

"I'm really happy," said Goodman. "I had a pretty good first run and the second run, I just totally laid everything on the line and it paid off."

Goodman, 24, suffered a serious knee injury in January 2010, and although she was back in action in time for the Vancouver Olympics, it's taken her a while to regain her confidence. Her previous best World Cup result this season was a 24th-place finish in Aspen in November.

"It's the first time since tearing my knee that I really went for it and trusted myself," said Goodman, adding she wasn't affected by a minor concussion she suffered a week ago. "Coming back has been harder than I anticipated. But on a day like today, that all disappears and everything seems good."

Marie-Michele Gagnon was skiing well on her first run before a mistake pushed her back to 33rd, with only the top 30 qualifying for the second run. Elli Terwiel and Eve Routhier did not qualify. Marie-Pier Prefontaine did not finish her first run and Brittany Phelan and Erin Mielzynski were disqualified.

"It was a good day for Anna. Her confidence was in need of a boost and she got that today," said women's technical head coach Jim Pollock. "When she's skiing with confidence she's got a lot of speed.

"Marie-Michele made some mistakes on the way down, otherwise she would have made it (to the second run). Anna's result is a step in the right direction. The next race, we want to see three or four athletes doing that."

The women's World Cup travels to Maribor for a giant slalom and slalom this weekend. S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Flachau women's World Cup slalom results