ALPINE:

Schild collects slalom crystal, Vonn inches closer to Riesch

March 12, 2011

SPINDLERUV MLYN, Czech Republic — World champion Marlies Schild led an Austrian 1-2 finish Saturday to win her sixth World Cup slalom of the season and clinch the discipline title.

Schild had the fastest time in both runs to clock 1 minute, 43.85 seconds on the Black course. Kathrin Zettel finished 0.93 second behind and Tina Maze of Slovenia was 1.16 back in third.

Schild holds an insurmountable 111-point lead over second-place Tanja Poutiainen of Finland in the slalom standings with only one more race remaining in the discipline.

"It's great to win (the discipline)," said Schild, who won the slalom title for the third time." I didn't expect to win it before the finals. The last races will be really cool."

The Austrian has won six of eight slaloms this season and has 29 World Cup wins in her career.

Marie-Michele Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin, Que., and Erin Mielzynski of Guelph, Ont., did not finish the first run.

Saturday's was the final race before the March 16-20 World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

Three-time overall defending champion Lindsey Vonn of the United States was tied for 16th, but still narrowed the gap to overall World Cup leader Maria Riesch from 38 to 23 points after the German went out in the second run.

Vonn has been struggling in slalom this season, only finishing events in Levi, Finland, and Aspen, Colo., previously. She was in 12th place after the first run and had the 20th fastest time in the second.

"I didn't ski well in my second run," Vonn said. "I know it was little bit too turny for me on the top. I just never really got into a good rhythm."

Riesch was 15th after the first run, where she lost her rhythm shortly after the start and also had problems on the lower part of the course. She then skied out just seconds into the second leg.

"This was a really, really bad and disappointing weekend for me," Riesch said. "I'll try to forget about that as soon as I can."

With four more races — a downhill, super-G, slalom and giant slalom — to come, the battle between Riesch and Vonn over the overall title remains wide open.

"This is a new challenge I never really faced before, to be down in the World Cup," Vonn said. "(The gap was) 200 points only few days ago and now I'm right back and we're pretty much equal right now before the finals. It couldn't have been written better."

On Friday, Vonn finished third in the giant slalom in Spindleruv Mlyn for her first career podium in the discipline to narrow Riesch's lead from 96 to 38 points. Riesch almost skied off in the second round and placed 29th,

"It's going to be really exciting finals, it's going to push me to a new level of skiing I never seen before myself," Vonn said. "This is going to be on the same level as the Olympics as far as the pressure goes."
Despite her disappointment, Riesch still sounded optimistic before the finals.

"I'm still in the lead overall and we have four races to go," she said. "I 'll try my really best next week and the world will not stop turning if I lose the big globe."

— The Canadian Press contributed to this report

Spindleruv Mlyn women's World Cup slalom results