Nowen wants slalom title after poor Olympics
The women's Alpine skiing World
Cup resumes
this weekend with Sweden's Ylva
Nowen seeking
to lift the slalom title and
make amends
for a poor Olympic showing.
Nowen went to the Nagano Games
as a favourite
for the slalom after four consecutive
wins
but disappointed with 12th place
at the Japanese
resort of Shiga Kogen.
At Sunday's night race -- the
last slalom
before next month's World Cup
finals in Crans
Montana, Switzerland -- the 28-year-old
Nowen
could secure the discipline's
crystal globe
with victory.
Topping the podium in Hinterglemm
in a race
which will be the women's third
competition
under floodlights this season,
would put
Nowen out of reach for her closest
rival
Kristina Koznick of the United
States.
Koznick, who last month captured
her maiden
World Cup triumph at the night
slalom in
Are, Sweden, is also seeking
to redeem herself
after an error in Nagano.
The 23-year-old racer's dream
of a medal
in her first appearance at the
Olympics ended
in the snow when she crashed
out of the second
run.
Tough competition for Nowen and
Koznick in
Hinterglemm will without doubt
come from
newly-crowned Olympic slalom
champion and
last month's winner in Bormio,
Hilde Gerg.
Although the 22-year-old German
is third
in the slalom standings, she
has only a slim
chance of claiming the event's
title as she
is 200 points behind Nowen.
But in Hinterglemm Gerg will
have her sights
more firmly set on reducing her
deficit of
343 points on compatriot Katja
Seizinger
in the battle for overall World
Cup victory.
Seizinger, winner of two golds
and one bronze
medal in Nagano, will be participating
in
her least favorite discipline
on Sunday to
try to collect points towards
the overall
title she won in 1996.
But the two women who joined
Gerg on the
Olympic rostrum are also expected
to put
up a fight.
Italy's silver medallist Deborah
Compagnoni,
who also took gold in giant slalom,
is chasing
her first slalom win of the winter
while
bronze medallist Zali Steggall
hopes for
a second win after Park City,
Utah.
In that November race, Steggall
became the
first Australian woman to win
a World Cup
race while in Nagano the 23-year-old
was
her country's first winner of
an Alpine medal.
Steggall's best friend, Austrian-born
Claudia
Riegler who competes for New
Zealand, will
be participating on Sunday despite
an ankle
injury sustained at the Games.
Despite the competition, Nowen
-- who had
never stood on a World Cup podium
in eight
previous winters on the circuit
-- admits
to liking Austrian slopes where
she won back-to-back
races in Lienz.
The Swedish psychology student
posted her
best result of the 1996/97 winter
by finishing
fifth in a slalom in Semmering,
some 70 kilometers
from Vienna.
The piste in Hinterglemm has
been artificially
prepared due to a shortage of
snow at the
resort in the province of Salzburg.
Sunday's race had originally
been planned
in Saalbach but high temperatures
forced
local organizers to move the
race higher
up the road to Hinterglemm.
Although weather reports have
forecast a
radical fall in temperatures
and snowfall
for Sunday, organizers on Saturday
had no
worries that the race might have
to be called
off.
``The piste has been prepared
so well --
very hard and icy -- we can easily
and very
quickly remove fresh snow if
necessary,''
said race organizer Dietmar Ziesel.
|
| Rank |
Name |
Nat. |
Total |
| 1 |
ERTL Martina |
GER |
1:36.00 |
| 2 |
BAKKE Trine |
NOR |
1:36.07 |
| 3 |
KOZNICK Kristina |
USA |
1:36.26 |
| 4 |
ACCOLA Martina |
SUI |
1:37.06 |
| 4 |
HROVAT Urska |
SLO |
1:37.06 |
| 6 |
GALLIZIO Morena |
ITA |
1:37.44 |
| 7 |
MAGONI Lara |
ITA |
1:37.58 |
| 8 |
GERG Hilde |
GER |
1:37.59 |
| 9 |
NOWEN Ylva |
SWE |
1:37.63 |
| 10 |
NEF Sonja |
SUI |
1:37.67 |
| 11 |
SALVENMOSER Ingrid |
AUT |
1:37.90 |
| 12 |
DOVZAN Alenka |
SLO |
1:37.92 |
| 13 |
PICCARD Leila |
FRA |
1:38.11 |
| 14 |
SEIZINGER Katja |
GER |
1:38.13 |
| 15 |
BIAVASCHI Elisabetta |
ITA |
1:38.24 |
| 16 |
ROTEN MEIER Karin |
SUI |
1:38.37 |
| 17 |
PASCAL-SAIONI Christel |
FRA |
1:38.88 |
| 18 |
BERGMANN Monika |
GER |
1:38.89 |
| 19 |
PEQUEGNOT Laure |
FRA |
1:38.97 |
| 20 |
FLEMMEN Andrine |
NOR |
1:39.09 |
| 21 |
ANDERSSON Kristina |
SWE |
1:39.15 |
| 22 |
HALTMAYR Petra |
GER |
1:39.57 |
| 23 |
SOURD Isabelle |
FRA |
1:39.90 |
| 24 |
BOKAL Natasa |
SLO |
1:40.08 |
| 25 |
BRAUNER Sibylle |
GER |
1:40.69 |
| 26 |
HAELLDAHL Sandra |
SWE |
1:40.85 |
| 27 |
RAITA Henna |
FIN |
1:41.16 |
| 28 |
NELSON Tasha |
USA |
1:43.19 |
Did not start 1st run:
EGGER Sabine (AUT)
Did not finish 1st run:
GRAU Vicky (AND), NIKOLUSSI Kathrin (AUS), ROHREGGER Eveline (AUT), TICHY
Katerina (CAN), KURFUERSTOVA Eva (CZE), PITKANEN Riitta (FIN), CHAUVET Patricia
(FRA), DUVILLARD Kristina (FRA), GERG Annemarie (GER), BARSI Kinga (HUN), MILANI
Barbara (ITA), PLANK Astrid (ITA), MAIR Manuela (ITA), FEHR Diana (LIE),
GILJARHUS Bente (NOR), YDESKOG Linda (SWE), OTTOSSON Anna (SWE), NEUENSCHWANDER
Katrin (SUI), PARISIEN Julie M.j. (USA), PRETNAR Spela (SLO)
Did not finish 2nd run:
STEGGALL Zali (AUS), RIEGLER Claudia (NZE)
Disqualified 1st run:
KOELLERER Karin (AUT)
Did not qualify 2nd run:
WAIDHOFER-DUMMER Carolina (AUT), VIDAL Vanessa (FRA), BEHRINGER Simone (GER),
GRUENENFELDER Corina (SUI), REYMOND Sandra (SUI)
|
