Sierra Nevada: Poutiainen leads after first run

SIERRA NEVADA, Spain — Tanja Poutiainen of Finland led the first run of a highly technical World Cup giant slalom Saturday.
    Poutiainen skied the steep Fuente del Tesoro course in 1 minute, 7.03 seconds.

SIERRA NEVADA, Spain — Tanja Poutiainen of Finland led the first run of a highly technical World Cup giant slalom Saturday.
    Poutiainen skied the steep Fuente del Tesoro course in 1 minute, 7.03 seconds.
    Denise Karbon of Italy, who won the bronze medal in giant slalom at the world championships last week, stood second, 0.41 seconds behind. Michaela Kirchgasser of Austria, who sprained her thumb in training Friday, was third, 0.71 out.
    The course starts out with a gradient of 54 percent, levels out in the middle section, then drops off sharply again before the finish.
    ''It's steep on the beginning and down here at the finish,'' Poutiainen said. ''At the middle it's flat but it goes really fast and you really have to be quick on your feet. It's not an easy course.''
    It was sunny during Saturday's race, but rain over the past few days made the snow grippy and hard to handle.
    ''It was a little bit icy, really hard snow, and that's what I like for my style of skiing,'' Poutiainen said.
    The World Cup circuit has not raced in this Spanish resort since the 1999 season finals and very few of the skiers are familiar with the course.
    Olympic giant slalom champion Julia Mancuso of the United States was sixth, 1.17 behind, and Anja Paerson, coming off a five-medal performance at her home championships in Are, Sweden, stood seventh, 1.22 off the pace.
    Nicole Hosp, the Austrian who won the giant slalom at the worlds 11 days ago and leads the World Cup GS standings, was eighth.
    Marlies Schild stood 10th and overall World Cup leader Renate Goetschl was 13th.
    Goetschl leads the overall standings with 1,001 points. Schild is second with 916, Mancuso has 903 and Hosp is fourth with 859.
    Poutiainen won the silver medal in giant slalom at last year's Torino Olympics and has one GS victory in her World Cup career — at Aspen, Colorado, two seasons ago. She has also won four World Cup slaloms.
    The Finn had a sub-par world championships, finishing 14th in both GS and slalom.
    Poutiainen sits second in the World Cup GS standings, 16 points behind Hosp.