TORINO: Alpine: Vanderbeek, shaken by teammate's fall, tops in final DH training

TORINO: Alpine: Vanderbeek, shaken by teammate’s fall, tops in final DH training{mosimage}SAN SICARIO, Italy – Kelly Vanderbeek of Canada led the final training session Tuesday for the women’s Olympic downhill, while the favored Austrians braked deliberately and Janica Kostelic sat out.

Vanderbeek covered the Fraiteve Olympique course in 1 minute, 55.23 seconds. Multi-medal favorite Anja Paerson of Sweden was second, 0.07 seconds behind, and Julia Mancuso of the United States was third, 0.09 back.

The 23-year-old Vanderbeek has never finished higher than 15th in a World Cup downhill. This is her first Olympics.

Vanderbeek said her skiing was affected by the crash of teammate Allison Forsyth, one of four skiers who went down Monday in the second training session. Forsyth tore knee ligaments and flew home for surgery.

”Mostly I was just trying to deal with yesterday and the emotions of having so many crashes and having a teammate go down,” Vanderbeek said. ”I was pretty nervous and I didn’t feel great this morning. For me to get over that I had to be aggressive.

”It was a few tears last night,” Vanderbeek added.

Austrian speedsters Renate Goetschl, Michaela Dorfmeister and Alexandra Meissnitzer braked heavily before crossing the finish line. Goetschl was seventh, followed by Dorfmeister in eighth and Meissnitzer in 22nd.

Tuesday’s session determined the starting order for Wednesday’s race, with the top 30 finishers starting in reverse order.

Vanderbeek will start 30th. The Austrians said they wanted to start earlier because vision was better. High clouds have come over the course midway through each of the three training sessions.

”In the afternoon the weather gets bad. The light is very important down here,” said Dorfmeister, who has already clinched the season’s World Cup downhill title.

Kostelic, the Croatian who won three gold medals four years ago, decided not to ski at the last moment due to a high pulse.

”She was not feeling good, her pulse was high and she decided not to race,” Croatia skiing director Vedran Pavlek said.

Lindsey Kildow, who came away with only a bruised hip from a crash in Monday’s training, also did not compete Tuesday, when she was released from the hospital.
Reigning Olympic champion Carole Montillet-Carles of France also sat out the final training session after suffering rib, back and facial injuries in a crash Monday.

Kostelic, Kildow and Montillet-Carles will decide if they will Wednesday morning.
If the three of them do compete, they will start outside the top 30. Dorfmeister said that would make for a tough race.

”Yeah, then it’s cloudy,” the Austrian said.

– The Associated Press