First victory for Melanie Suchet
France's Melanie Suchet clinched
her first
World Cup race today in Cortina
d'Ampezzo
in a dramatic Super-G marked
by impressive
crashes of most of the top favorites
in the
final part of the course.
Report by Patrick Lang
The 21-year-old racer from Les
Menuires,
in Savoie, was able to handle
almost perfectly
this difficult final part to
win the 5th
Super-G of the season with an
advance of
43/100 of a second on Germany's
Regina Haeusl
and 40/100 on the 19-year-old
Karen Putzer
from Italy.
Switzerland's Heidi Zurbriggen
was one of
the few top-skiers to finish
the race : she
was 4th. Picabo Street got an
encouraging
11th place less than a second
behind the
leader. The other US skiers finished
behind
the 30th position. Known as a
very talented
downhill specialist with several
top-3 finished
in her career, Melanie Suchet
only found
out a week ago about her great
potential
in Super-G when she came 3rd
in Altenmarkt,
Austria. Her 24th place in the
downhill on
Thursday didn't make her very
happy and she
was looking for a revenge in
this demanding
Super-G set on the second half
of the spectacular
"Tofana Olympia" run
used in 1956
during the Winter Olympics. She
was lucky
to start in 25th position behind
all the
favorites : she had time to watch
their races
on TV and to find out about the
difficulties
of the last part of the course
set by the
Russian trainer Yuri Melnikov.
"I was
aware of all the problems in
this treacherous
final section after watching
some runs on
the TV monitor" she explained.
"My
colleagues also informed me well
about the
best line in the last turns where
it was
important to be smoother and
not as direct
as in the upper part. This win
is a result
of a strong team effort. Everybody
has been
fighting hard for this success
since the
season start. Our team has improved
a lot
in the speed events and we were
very confident
when we came here. In fact Florence
Masnada
was 3rd yesterday and I won the
race today."
This great performance also pays
her back
for all the lost time and the
pain she had
to overcome in the last three
years after
several severe injuries. She
torn twice her
ligaments(ACL) and the right
knee and she
broke her left ankle in the last
three years
after a tremendous start of her
international
career in 1994 when she was only
17.
After two second places in World
Cup downhills
in Germany and Spain, she finished
at a strong
6th place in the Olympic downhill
in Lillehammer.
She was 3rd in the final downhill
standings
in the World Cup. She had to
wait for almost
four year to confirm her potential.
"I'm
was somehow crazy when I was
younger and
I skied too aggressively"
she explained.
"Now I'm cooler and smarter".
It
was the first French win in Super-G
since
the success of Masnada in Garmisch-Partenkirchen
in January 1995 and only the
second this
season after Leila Piccard victory
in the
Parallel event in Tignes, late
October. Excellent
glider and very aggressive, Suchet
will also
be aiming for Olympic medals
next month at
Hakuba when she will fight to
become the
first French women to capture
an Olympic
title in the speed events. Also
a former
junior World Champion Karen Putzer
conquered
at 19 her first podium on the
World Cup tour.
The tiny Italian is only racing
in her second
full World Cup season and her
small size
helped her to master the last
difficulties
of the course in a better way
than her more
famous colleague Isolde Kostner.
The winner
of the downhill and reigning
World Champion
in that specialty skied out in
that tough
29th gates as Germany's top-guns
Hilde Gerg,
Martina Ertl and Katja Seizinger
or Austria's
Renate Goetschl and Alexandra
Meissnitzer.
"I didn't arrive as fast
as them in
those turns and I had no problem
to make
it through" she said. "This
result
is a great boost for my moral
after a disappointing
season's start". This is
also what Regina
Haeusl said. The 25-year-old
Bavarian survived
a bad crash on Thursday to fight
back in
that strange Super-G which brought
her the
first top-3 finish in the last
five years.
A winner in the downhill here
in 1993, Haeusl
had to face many injuries in
the following
years which prevented her to
remain at a
top level. In the second Super-G
planned
for this Saturday, the best skiers
are expected
to fight back with great determination.
Isolde
Kostner and Katja Seizinger will
be the skiers
to beat this time. |
Women's 5th Super-G, January 23,1998
| Rank |
Name |
Nat. |
Total |
| 1 |
SUCHET Melanie |
FRA |
1:15.25 |
| 2 |
HAEUSL Regina |
GER |
1:15.48 |
| 3 |
PUTZER Karen |
ITA |
1:15.65 |
| 4 |
ZURBRIGGEN Heidi |
SUI |
1:15.67 |
| 5 |
GUTENSOHN Katharina |
GER |
1:15.76 |
| 6 |
BRACUN Spela |
SLO |
1:15.88 |
| 7 |
MASNADA Florence |
FRA |
1:15.98 |
| 8 |
PEREZ Bibiana |
ITA |
1:16.00 |
| 9 |
KRISTIANSEN Kristine |
NOR |
1:16.07 |
| 9 |
SCHNEIDER Tanja |
AUT |
1:16.07 |
| 11 |
STREET Picabo |
USA |
1:16.20 |
| 12 |
DALLOZ Leatitia |
FRA |
1:16.32 |
| 13 |
ZELENSKAJA Warwara |
RUS |
1:16.37 |
| 14 |
WACHTER Anita |
AUT |
1:16.42 |
| 15 |
SUHADOLC Mojca |
SLO |
1:16.52 |
| 16 |
GIMLE Trude |
NOR |
1:16.66 |
| 17 |
MARKEN Ingeborg Helen |
NOR |
1:16.69 |
| 18 |
TAGLIABUE Elena |
ITA |
1:16.79 |
| 19 |
VOGT Miriam |
GER |
1:16.82 |
| 20 |
BORGHI Catherine |
SUI |
1:17.02 |
| 21 |
OBERMOSER Brigitte |
AUT |
1:17.24 |
| 22 |
CECCARELLI Daniela |
ITA |
1:17.26 |
| 23 |
GLADISHIVA Svetlana |
RUS |
1:17.35 |
| 24 |
KALAN Anja |
SLO |
1:17.36 |
| 25 |
FJELDAVLIE Merete |
NOR |
1:17.44 |
| 26 |
MONAHAN Kathleen |
USA |
1:17.66 |
| 27 |
FORTKORD Martina |
SWE |
1:17.71 |
| 28 |
MERLIN Alessandra |
ITA |
1:17.85 |
| 29 |
LALIVE Caroline |
USA |
1:18.10 |
| 30 |
SKOGLUND Tatum |
USA |
1:18.11 |
| 31 |
BRANDNER Elisabeth |
GER |
1:18.12 |
| 32 |
MENDES Jonna |
USA |
1:18.17 |
| 33 |
HEREGGER Selina |
AUT |
1:18.30 |
| 34 |
KOSTELIC Janica |
CRO |
1:18.71 |
| 35 |
PACE LINDSAY Kate |
CAN |
1:18.81 |
| 36 |
BRESCIANI Elena |
ITA |
1:19.01 |
| 37 |
SALCHINGER Marianna |
AUT |
1:19.30 |
| 38 |
TSCHIRKY Monika |
SUI |
1:19.31 |
| 39 |
SCHAEDLER Tamara |
LIE |
1:19.45 |
| 40 |
GERETY Megan |
USA |
1:19.87 |
| 41 |
KHARKIVSKA Yulia |
UKR |
1:23.60 |
Did not start:
NORHEIM Tonje (NOR), SEKINO Fujiko (FRA), MERLIN Barbara (ITA)
Did not finish:
BASSIS Patrizia (ITA), BERTHOD Sylviane (SUI), CLARK Kirsten L (USA), ERTL
Martina (GER), GOETSCHL Renate (AUT), KOVACS Monika (HUN), LARIONOVA Anna (RUS),
MONTILLET Carole (FRA), SCHUSTER Stefanie (AUT), SEIZINGER Katja (GER), TURGEON
Melanie (CAN), CAVAGNOUD Regine (FRA), GERG Hilde (GER), KOSTNER Isolde (ITA),
MEISSNITZER Alexandra (AUT), REY BELLET Corinne (SUI)
Disqualified:
STROEM Grete (NOR), WIBERG Pernilla (SWE), BRAUNER Sibylle (GER)
|
