Whistler: Riesch wins SC; Overall leaders converge

By Published On: February 25th, 2008Comments Off on Whistler: Riesch wins SC; Overall leaders converge

Cream rises. The top seven finishers of the women's super combined at Whistler, B.C., Sunday are also the top seven in the overall standings.
    Maria Riesch did the math perfectly. With the leaders at the bottom and slalom ace Marlies Schild in the lead, Riesch fought her way down the Whistler slalom course to collect her second win of the season and tighten up the top of the overall standings.
    On the day the super combined went to Riesch, Schild and Anja Paerson in third, but the focus of the World Cup was just beyond the podium. Nicole Hosp, the defending Cup champion finished fourth with a surprisingly fast super G run in the morning and a calculated slalom run. Elisabeth Goergl was in fifth but one hundredth of a second behind her was Lindsey Vonn who surprised a few people herself with a very strong slalom run. Vonn and Hosp appeared to have swapped specialties as Hosp beat Vonn in the super G but Vonn topped her in the slalom.     And behind Vonn, was teammate Julia Mancuso. She skied into second place after the super combined, but dropped to seventh after a mistake in the slalom.


CREAM RISES. The top seven finishers of the women's super combined at Whistler, B.C., Sunday are also the top seven in the overall standings.
    Maria Riesch did the math perfectly. With the leaders at the bottom and slalom ace Marlies Schild in the lead, Riesch fought her way down the Whistler slalom course to collect her second win of the season and tighten up the top of the overall standings.
    On the day the super combined went to Riesch, Schild and Anja Paerson in third, but the focus of the World Cup was just beyond the podium. Nicole Hosp, the defending Cup champion finished fourth with a surprisingly fast super G run in the morning and a calculated slalom run. Elisabeth Goergl was in fifth but one hundredth of a second behind her was Lindsey Vonn who surprised a few people herself with a very strong slalom run. Vonn and Hosp appeared to have swapped specialties as Hosp beat Vonn in the super G but Vonn topped her in the slalom.    
    And behind Vonn, was teammate Julia Mancuso. She skied into second place after the super combined, but dropped to seventh after a mistake in the slalom.
    "I think in Lind’s case where she was after the super G [in 10th], I think she did a good job and had a solid run and did some damage control," U.S. women's head coach Patrick Riml said. "Julia unfortunately had a little bit of a mistake in the slalom, that’s why she moved back a little bit. “I think we had a great weekend and 6 and 7 isn’t bad.”
    The end result did little to change the order of the top seven. Schild slipped by Goergl into fourth and the margins between skiers got a little tighter, but there should be little doubt these are the top seven skiers on the women's tour this season.
    Vonn might have been the victim of a headwind at the very top of the super G course, but was reasonably satisfied with her day.
    "It turned out okay, I'd have to say," said Vonn. "It was pretty tough. The super G didn't go that well for me. The coaches said I got a pretty strong headwind, because I was absolutely dead last for the first 13 seconds, like a half a second out, and it's essentially just straight tucking turns, so it's pretty hard to be that slow. Stacey Cook, we have the same technician and she was pretty fast, so it wasn't the skis, I think it was just the head wind."
    "In combined I need a little buffer," she continued, "because I'm not going to win slalom runs. But I'm happy with it. I got some points. I was fighting hard and that's really all you can do."
    The slalom leg got interesting fast as the fourth skier out of the gate, Sandrine Aubert of France, took the lead by an amazing 3.21 seconds. She would finish the day with the fastest slalom time and it was enough to hold the lead through 16 start places until Goergl got past her with an equally impressive run through the slalom gates. Vonn was the next starter and put down a very impressive run herself finishing, for the second straight race, a hundredth away from a better placing. Schild came next and ripped the first few gates, evened out in the middle and then exploded through the final steep pitch to take the lead.
    That left SG leader Riesch who skied aggressively but used nearly all of her half second SG margin to claim the win by just .09.


The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women's super combined (SG/SL), Whistler, BC, Feb. 24, 2008

Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Riesch, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
2 Schild, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Paerson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
4 Hosp, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
5 Goergl, Head/Head/Head
6 Vonn, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
7 Mancuso, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
8 Fischbacher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Aubert, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
10 Brydon, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

 
Women's super combined (SG+SL), Whistler, BC, Feb. 24, 2008. … It is the 30th of 38 races on the women's 2008 World Cup schedule. … The second of three combineds. … It is the final of four races set at Whistler this season and the 17th at the site in World Cup history. … It is the first combined at the site. … The other women's combined this season was held at St Anton Dec. 22.
    It is the sixth win of Maria Riesch's World Cup career. … Her first in combined. … It is her second win of the season, having claimed the Cortina SG Jan. 21. … It is the first combined win for a German in more than ten years, since Hilde Gerg won at Veysonnaz Dec. 20, 1998.
    It is the 43rd career podium finish for Marlies Schild. … And her fifth in combined. … It is her eighth podium of the season and the first in combined. … She, Benjamin Raich and Rainer Schoenfelder are the only Austrians to podium in combined this season all without a win.
    It is the 78th career World Cup podium for Anja Paerson. … Her fourth of the season. … It is just her fifth career scoring result in combined and the fourth podium in combined. … Her other combined result is a fourth.
    It is the sixth best of six career World Cup scoring results in combined for Lindsey Vonn. … She has one each of the top six places having won at St Anton earlier this season, been second at Zauchensee in 2007, third at St Moritz in 2006, fourth at Hafjell in 2006, fifth at Sansicario in 2005 and sixth here. … It is her 14th top six finish this season. … It is the 43rd time in Julia Mancuso's career she's been among the top seven of a World Cup race. … She has nearly hit the cycle in combined missing only a fourth place finish in a one-seven round. … It is her 15th top 10 result of the season. … It is the 28th career top 10 for Emily Brydon. … Her sixth of the season. … She has just three combined results better for her career, a third at Sansicario in 2005 and two nint
h place finishes. … It is the fourth career scoring result for Leanne Smith, all of them from this season. … It is her first combined score. … It is the third career scoring result for Chelsea Marshall, and first in combined.
    Winning margin is .09 of a second. … Top sixth are with the same second. … Top 12 within two seconds. … Vonn maintains the lead in the overall standings 1103-1049 for Nicole Hosp (4th in race). … Riesch remains in third with 981pts and Schild moves to fourth at 951. … Elisabeth Goergl (5th in race) is fifth at 922, Julia Mancuso sixth at 846 and Paerson seventh at 819. … Riesch takes the lead of the combined standings 180-140 over Vonn. … Mancuso is third at 96 and Schild with 80 is fourth. … There is one combined remaining on the schedule.



  

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  22  206001 RIESCH Maria  1984  GER   1:21.49  48.58  2:10.07  0.00
 2  19  55590 SCHILD Marlies  1981  AUT   1:22.58  47.58  2:10.16  0.69
 3  21  505483 PAERSON Anja  1981  SWE   1:22.32  48.06  2:10.38  2.38
 4  16  55690 HOSP Nicole  1983  AUT   1:22.27  48.13  2:10.40  2.54
 5  11  55576 GOERGL Elisabeth  1981  AUT   1:22.62  48.01  2:10.63  4.31
 6  17  537544 VONN Lindsey  1984  USA   1:22.62  48.02  2:10.64  4.38
 7  20  537545 MANCUSO Julia  1984  USA   1:21.91  49.21  2:11.12  8.07
 8  2  55750 FISCHBACHER Andrea  1985  AUT   1:22.42  48.81  2:11.23  8.92
 9  15  195972 AUBERT Sandrine  1982  FRA   1:24.10  47.28  2:11.38  10.07
 10  10  105997 BRYDON Emily  1980  CAN   1:22.02  49.85  2:11.87  13.84
 11 &nbsp
;18
 195671 JACQUEMOD Ingrid  1978  FRA   1:22.55  49.34  2:11.89  13.99
 12  30  565243 MAZE Tina  1983  SLO   1:23.29  48.70  2:11.99  14.76
 13  14  296427 SCHNARF Johanna  1984  ITA   1:23.77  48.66  2:12.43  18.14
 14  13  515692 GRAND Rabea  1984  SUI   1:23.84  48.77  2:12.61  19.53
 14  9  565261 ROBNIK Petra  1984  SLO   1:23.68  48.93  2:12.61  19.53
 16  27  206175 STECHERT Gina  1987  GER   1:23.92  49.34  2:13.26  24.53
 17  3  515587 PUENCHERA Jessica  1982  SUI   1:23.98  49.40  2:13.38  25.45
 18  25  296008 MERIGHETTI Daniela  1981  ITA   1:23.86  49.56  2:13.42  25.76
 19  26  505632 LINDELL-VIKARBY Jessica  1984  SWE   1:23.16  50.27  2:13.43  25.83
 20  6  515747 GISIN Dominique  1985  SUI   1:23.36  50.66  2:14.02  30.37
 21  12  297134 BORSOTTI Camilla  1988  ITA   1:24.37  50.22  2:14.59  34.75
 22  24  225206 ALCOTT Chemmy  1982  GBR   1:23.97  51.04  2:15.01  37.98
 23  34  538305 SMITH Leanne  1987  USA  &nb
sp;1:24.25
 50.94  2:15.19  39.36
 24  37  315149 LOLOVIC Jelena  1981  SRB   1:26.04  49.39  2:15.43  41.21
 25  28  538038 MARSHALL Chelsea  1986  USA   1:24.77  51.24  2:16.01  45.67
 26  35  195983 ROLLAND Marion  1982  FRA   1:24.23  52.28  2:16.51  49.51
 27  4  296472 FANCHINI Elena  1985  ITA   1:23.05  53.99  2:17.04  53.59
 28  29  196460 MARCHAND-ARVIER Marie  1985  FRA   1:23.09  1:02.66  2:25.75  120.55
 29  1  106410 DESFORGES Emilie  1983  CAN   1:22.73  1:06.18  2:28.91  144.85

 

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