TORINO: Alpine: Mancuso clips Paerson to set first-run pace in GS

By Published On: February 24th, 2006Comments Off on TORINO: Alpine: Mancuso clips Paerson to set first-run pace in GS

TORINO: Alpine: Mancuso clips Paerson to set first-run pace in GSSESTRIERE, Italy – Julia Mancuso, she of the Italian heritage and tiara and California cool attitude, sizzled to the lead in the first run of women’s giant slalom Friday, the last women’s event of the Torino Winter Games.

With Croatian force Janica Kostelic not racing, Sweden’s Anja Paerson, winner of the women’s slalom and three medals already, looked poise to top the podium again.

With the favorites running early in the first run in deteriorating conditions, Paerson set the early pace. Running third, she completed the run in 1 minute, 1.07 seconds. She won the women’s slalom and took bronze in downhill and combined.

But Mancuso, hoping to salvage a bitterly disappointing Games for the American alpine women, bested Paerson’s time by .18 seconds to take the lead. Finland’s Tanja Poutianen was third, .32 back.

“It was fun to come to the finish line in first,” Mancuso said. “I was a little surprised. It was a little rough but I let it run. I just went to ski. The conditions were better than it looked. They scraped it down to injected stuff. It wasn’t smooth in sections. You can’t see the snow that much. For the second run I just want to go out and ski my best again I don’t really have a strategy.”

American Lindsey Kildow, not a strong threat in GS, was a late scratch from the start order.

Mancuso has one career GS podium on the World Cup circuit, a third at Ofterschwang on Feb. 4, the final GS before Torino. She has seven career top 10s in the discipline on the World Cup tour. Mancuso also took bronze at the 2005 Bormio World Championships in GS.

Mancuso had not had a stellar Games thus far, finishing seventh in downhill, ninth in combined and 11th in super G, These are her second Olympics. She was 13th in the combined in 2002 at Snowbasin.

American Sarah Schleper was 12th with results still provisional, 1.12 off the pace. Teammate Stacey Cook was 25th.

Austrian Nicole Hosp was fourth, gutsy German veteran Martina Ertl-Renz was fifth and Canada’s Genevieve Simard sixth. Rounding out the top 10 were Nadia Fanchini, Nadia Styger, Kathrin Zettel and Tina Maze.

Schleper said of the first run: “It was really fun. The snow was so, so nice. I just sat back in a couple of turns, got a little sideways in the injected snow.”

“I wasn’t surprised to see [Mancuso] in first,” Schleper said. “She is a great GS skier. I didn’t see her that much this morning but leading up to this, she’s been pretty focused and she loves big events. I think she can definitely win and she’s not going to give it away, that’s for sure. For second run, hopefully I can move a little better down the pitch and not slide at all.”

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About the Author: Pete Rugh