ALPINE:

Riesch overtakes Vonn to win super-combi, extend overall lead

Feb. 25, 2011

ARE, Sweden ― Maria Riesch won a World Cup super-combined race Friday after a strong slalom run and extended her lead over her biggest rival Lindsey Vonn at the top of the overall standings.

The German, who got two bronze medals at the recent World Championships, had finished second behind Vonn in the super-G run earlier Friday, but overtook the American to win in 1 minute, 59.60 seconds.

Giant slalom world champion Tina Maze of Slovenia jumped up to second place, .40 seconds behind, while Elisabeth Goergl of Austria finished .66 back in third.

Canada’s Marie-Michele Gagnon placed 19th.

"The key to the victory was the super-G, and then I had a very good slalom run," said the 26-year-old Riesch, who took bronze in super-G and downhill at the worlds in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

"This kind of victory is very important for me because my biggest goal is to win the overall."

Whatever happens in Saturday's downhill race and Sunday's super-G, Riesch will still be top after this weekend.

She has 1,356 points and is 216 points clear of the 26-year-old American Vonn, who had won the first super-combi race of the season last December in Val d'Isere. Goergl, a double gold-medallist at the worlds, is third overall with 738.

Local favorite Anja Paerson finished the race in fourth place — and was furious about missing out on a podium spot. She held her face in her hands after crossing the line and then threw her poles up in exasperation.

"I'm pretty annoyed I didn't make podium; two-hundredths of a second is close," Paerson said. "My slalom run was better than I expected it to be ... two-hundredths is such a small margin. It annoys me I can't make podium when I'm at home."

Paerson was quickest in downhill training on Wednesday and Thursday, and the Swede fully intends to make amends for missing out in Saturday's downhill.

"Hopefully I get luck in tomorrow's race and get it back," she said. "I've been fastest in the training runs."

Vonn dropped down to sixth place after a patchy slalom run where she struggled to find any rhythm.

"I was disappointed with my result today, but I had a good super-G run and I look forward to my next two days here," Vonn said. "I feel like I had a hard time with the groove, there was a bit of a rut and I lost my balance about 10 gates in, and I never really got back in the rhythm."

Vonn was .48 back at the time split, but crossed the line 1.16 seconds behind Riesch.

"I'm just disappointed because I've been skiing a good slalom and haven't been able to put it in a race," Vonn said. "I'm really happy with my super-G run. It was solid, aggressive, I was driving the ski. Definitely back to my normal self."

Vonn insists she is now full recovered from the concussion she suffered in training ahead of the recent World Championships.

"I feel really good and my head is clear," she said. "I definitely feel good."

Julia Mancuso of the United States, who was fifth after the super-G, finished eighth.

Saturday's downhill promises to be fiercely contested between Goergl, the reigning world champion, the silver-medalist Vonn and Riesch.

Paerson's determination to give her home fans something to cheer about will add to the spectacle in Are.

"For me nothing else matters than winning tomorrow," Paerson said.

Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin, Que., crossed the finish line with a two-run combined time of 2:03.14. She was 36th after the super-G run but managed to bump herself up into the top 20.

"I was pretty disappointed after my super-G run. I need to change my approach in speed events,” said Gagnon, 22. "When I race technical events, I want to win and go as fast as I can, but I don't think the same way yet when I race speed. I need to start thinking like that and need to cut time off of my runs.

"I needed to make it into the top 30 in super-G, that would have drastically changed the outcome of my end result. I would have been able to have an early start in slalom and race on a clean course. In this case, I had to start after all the fastest girls and the course was rougher."

Gagnon did not take part in the two downhill training runs that were scheduled Wednesday and Thursday. Instead, she trained slalom for two days.

"I really needed those two days of slalom. I hadn't trained it for a while and I felt like I was losing it a little bit," added Gagnon. "It was great training and I felt great coming into the slalom portion of the race."

Gagnon's best super-combined career result was a 12th-place finish in Val d'Isère, France, last December.

"We knew that it would be difficult for Mitch to get a top 30 in the super-G event, but that was the key in order to get a good ranking today," said team head coach Hugues Ansermoz. "She made a couple of mistakes here and there and that's why she finished in 36th place."

"We knew that if she had a solid slalom run she could rank between 15th and 20th and she finished 19th. Her slalom run was good, but I know she can do even better. I think she did a good job considering everything."

Whistler's Britt Janyk took part in the super-G portion of the race to get some training in. She completed the run in a time of 1:16.96 and ranked 33rd.

The women will race the downhill event in Are on Saturday. Tune in early to watch it live on CBCSports.ca and BOLD starting at 4:45 a.m. E.T. CBC's main network will be showing the race at 4:30 p.m. E.T. Saturday.

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Are women's World Cup super-combined results