Lenzerheide: Goetschl wins, Schild 2nd in DH to take command of overall chase

Renate Goetschl won the season’s final downhill Wednesday, and Austrian teammate Marlies Schild increased her lead in the overall World Cup standings by finishing second.
    Goetschl, who has already won the women’s World Cup downhill title, completed the 2,553-meter (1.6-mile) Silvano Beltrametti course in 1 minute, 22.73 seconds.
    Schild, a slalom expert, was a surprising second in 1:23.31 on the highly technical course. It was her best career downhill result.
    Marie Marchand-Arvier of France was third in 1:23.40, while Maria Riesch of Germany was fourth in 1:23.76. Julia Mancuso slipped from third into fourth in the overall standings after finishing fifth in 1:23.78.
    Nicole Hosp of Austria, the only other skier still in the chase for the overall, was sixth in 1:23.81 to remain in second place in the standings.

LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland — Renate Goetschl won the season’s final downhill Wednesday, and Austrian teammate Marlies Schild increased her lead in the overall World Cup standings by finishing second.
    Goetschl, who has already won the women’s World Cup downhill title, completed the 2,553-meter (1.6-mile) Silvano Beltrametti course in 1 minute, 22.73 seconds.
    Schild, a slalom expert, was a surprising second in 1:23.31 on the highly technical course. It was her best career downhill result.
    Marie Marchand-Arvier of France was third in 1:23.40, while Maria Riesch of Germany was fourth in 1:23.76. Julia Mancuso slipped from third into fourth in the overall standings after finishing fifth in 1:23.78.
    Nicole Hosp of Austria, the only other skier still in the chase for the overall, was sixth in 1:23.81 to remain in second place in the standings.
    Schild now leads with 1,382 points, 55 more than Hosp. Goetschl picked up 100 points to move into third place with 1,300, while Mancuso has 1,296.
    The race was run in extremely warm temperatures and clear blue skies.
    “It was like a swimming pool,” said Sweden’s Anja Paerson, who finished seventh, of the top section.
    “Schild and Hosp have been doing much better in downhill and starting to learn how the downhill skis work. [Schild] has been skiing aggressively on this course, and she took advantage of a good start number.”
    Schild’s previous best result in a World Cup downhill was a seventh-place finish in Tarvisio, Italy, 11 days ago.
    ''There are still three races left and anything can happen,'' Hosp said after posting her second-best career downhill result. ''Marlies was simply better today.''
    Elisabeth Goergl of Austria crashed into the net while she was leading but was not injured.
    A super G is scheduled for Thursday, with a slalom on Saturday and a giant slalom on Sunday.
    Both Hosp and Mancuso were hoping to outscore Schild in the speed races because those are traditionally her weaker events. Goetschl was under the most immediate pressure, however, since she is not a realistic contender in the weekend’s slalom and giant slalom.
    The super G should give Mancuso, Goetschl and Hosp another crack at gaining ground on Schild.

Cook 14th, Clark DNS
    Stacey Cook was 14th in 1:25.46 to finish her season on an up note while veteran Kirsten Clark, who won a World Cup downhill at Lenzerheide in 2001, did not start after a training crash Monday. “Kirsten wanted to go, but I’m glad she used her head and didn’t race,” head coach Patrick Riml said.
    “I’m psyched with the way I skied but I could have pushed it harder,” Mancuso said. “I wasn’t on my skis. The snow was grippy and faster, but easier, too … and I wasn’t quite prepared for that.”
    Although Schild is noted primarily for her gate-running, Mancuso was quick to point out she skied well in Tarvisio, Italy, earlier this month when she was seventh in a downhill, which Mancuso won. “She’s skiing well. This wasn’t a big surprise for me,” she said.
    Missing a gate Tuesday in the second downhill training run affected Mancuso a bit, Riml said, “and it seemed she just showed the course too much respect. She wasn’t pushing the line the way she normally does, but fifth is good. The snow changed a little bit with the delays [including a lengthy hold replacing safety meeting when Austrian Elisabeth Goergl went off course], so it got softer and that made things easier … and Jules got caught there.
    “You know, it’s easy to get a little spoiled sometimes when you’ve had the success we’ve had this year, but it’s been a great season … and we haven’t had Lindsey [Kildow] for the last month, so I’m psyched for these girls. We always want the podium, but Jules has three more chances. She’s not done yet.”

THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women's DH, Lenzerheide, Switzerland, March 14, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Goetschl, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Schild, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Marchand-Arvier, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
4 Riesch, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
5 Mancuso, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
6 Hosp, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
7 Paerson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
8 Jacquemod, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
9 Brydon, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
9 Aufdenblatten, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

Women's downhill, Lenzerheide, Switzerland, March 14, 2007. … It is the 32nd race of the season for the women. … There are three races remaining for women of a 37 race schedule. … It is the ninth of nine downhills.
    It is the 46th career win for Renate Goetschl. … That ties her with Marc Girardelli for sixth on the all-time win list. … She is third among women behind Annemarie Moser-Proell (62) and Vreni Schneider (55). … It is her 24th career DH win. … That puts her third all-time behind Moser-Proell (36) and Franz Klammer (25). … It is her eighth victory of the season. … Her fourth in DH (rest coming in super G).
    It is the 34th career podium for Marlies Schild. … Her first in DH. … Her previous best in DH had been seventh at Tarvisio March 3, 2007. … It is her 13th podium of the season, three in combined (plus a bronze medal at World Championships), one in DH, one in GS (Semmering Dec. 28), one in super G (Reiteralm Dec. 16) and eight in slalom (plus a silver medal at Worlds).
    It is the second career podium for Marie Marchand-Arvier, the other also a third in DH, at Cortina Jan. 20 of this season. … Her next best finish is 11th, accomplished three times.
    It is the 27th top five placing for Julia Mancuso's World Cup career. … ninth time she has finished fifth. … It is her 14th top five of the season, plus two World Championship results. … She was fourth in DH at Lenzerheide in the 2005 finals. … It is the 21st career top 10 for Emily Brydon. … Her eighth of the
season. … third of the season in DH. … It is the fifth best World Cup result of Stacey Cook's career. … fourth best in DH. … Britt Janyk matches her 15th best career result, but does not score points.
    Schild maintains the lead in the overall standings and leads 1382-1327 over Nicole Hosp (6th in race). … Goetschl is third at 1300 and Julia Mancuso fourth at 1296. … Lindsey Kildow (absent to injury) is fifth at 808, ahead of Anja Paerson (7th in race) with 705. … Final DH standings show Goetschl over Mancuso 705-536 with Kildow third at 390. … Winning margin is .58 of a second. …Top three are within a second. … top 10 within two seconds.

Lenzerheide women's World Cup downhill results

Did not start 1st run:
VANDERBEEK Kelly (CAN), CLARK Kirsten L (USA)

Did not finish 1st run:
GOERGL Elisabeth (AUT), BORGHI Catherine (SUI), MERIGHETTI Daniela (ITA)