ALPINE:

Vonn snags season victory No. 5, fending off Paerson

Jan. 21, 2011 

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Lindsey Vonn finally put together an error-free run and posted her fifth victory of the season in a super-G on Friday, taking a big chunk out of Maria Riesch's overall World Cup lead.

Vonn, who has had to make difficult recoveries in several recent races, sped down the shortened Olympia delle Tofane course in 1 minute, 11.66 seconds.

"All I'm happy about really today is that I had a good, clean run," Vonn said. "In the past few races I've been making mistakes, and today I found a happy balance, a happy medium, and I was able to ski solid and have a good day."

Swedish standout Anja Paerson finished second, 0.43 seconds behind, to match her best result this season. Anna Fenninger of Austria was 0.47 seconds back in third on an uncharacteristically cold day at Cortina, where the temperature was just 10 degrees on top of the course.

Canada was paced by Britt Janyk in 22nd.

Paerson has been skiing through knee pain for years, and a couple jumps on the top of the hill have always caused her trouble.

"I was a little tentative on top and then pushed really hard on the bottom," she said. "I was able to straighten out some problems with my equipment since the last speed races. Speed skiing is all about finding the right harmony and feeling and I'm starting to feel good.

"My focus is really on the World Championships," Paerson added, looking ahead to the two-week event next month in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

Vonn's teammate Julia Mancuso made an error toward the end of her run and placed fourth, just 0.13 seconds off the podium, and Swiss teenager Lara Gut finished fifth after winning the previous super-G in Zauchensee, Austria.

Riesch placed ninth and lost 68 points to Vonn in the overall chase. Vonn has a 131-point lead over Riesch in the super-G standings through three races.

It was Vonn's fourth victory in Cortina and she'll be favored again in Saturday's downhill and in another super-G Sunday. Vonn recorded the first podium finish of her career in Cortina seven years ago and now has nine career top-three finishes at the posh resort in the Dolomite Range. Retired Austrian great Renate Goetschl has the record with 10 career wins in Cortina.

This week didn't start well for Vonn, however. She nearly wiped out in her opening downhill training run Wednesday, which brought back memories of several more recent recoveries.

In the circuit's previous downhill in Zauchensee, Vonn skied well off course on a sharp right turn but managed to recover in time and win. She also won despite a wobble near the top of her downhill run in Val d'Isere, France, last month. Before that, Vonn recovered after flying off the course in Lake Louise, Alberta, but still gave away a precious win to Riesch.

"I was like, 'OK, that's enough. I really need to just take it easy and ski 90 percent — ski cleanly but don't risk too much,'" Vonn said. "It slows you down and it's also very dangerous. This whole weekend my goal is just to have clean runs and no mistakes."

The race Friday was scheduled for last month but was postponed twice, first due to high winds in St. Moritz, Switzerland, then by excessive snowfall in Val d'Isere.

Janyk crossed the finish line in 1:13.22 seconds in Friday's super-G event, which replaced the canceled speed race in St. Moritz, Switzerland, last December.

"I'm not satisfied with my race today. You're never aiming for a 22nd place and I was not as fast as I wanted to be," said a visibly disappointed Janyk. "Generally I think that I skied well today and I went out there and I raced it so I have to be happy about that. My time is a little farther out than what I would have hoped for.

"You only get one inspection before you race the super-G so you need to trust your inspection and let go of the skis and ski as hard as you can. I just need to put the placing aside and focus on the things that went well today."

Saint-Sauveur, Quebec-based athlete Marie-Pierre Préfontaine finished in 48th place and  teammate Georgia Simmerling from West Vancouver, B.C., was 49th.

"We obviously expected more on the results side of things, but it wasn't a bad day," said head coach Hugues Anzermoz. "Britt had a really good run and she was aiming for a top 15 but it didn't work out. The times are really close and she is not far from what she had set her sights on.

"Cortina is one of the bigger races on the ladies' circuit. It's not necessarily the most difficult one but there are definitely some spots on the track that are pretty impressive," added Anzermoz.  S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Cortina women's World Cup super-G results