Fenninger gives Austria another gold
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Anna Fenninger of Austria celebrates on her way to the podium for the world skiing championship women's super-combined race in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, yesterday. |
Anna Fenninger won the women's super combined to give Austria its second gold of the world skiing championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, yesterday while favorites Maria Riesch and Lindsey Vonn continued to battle fitness problems.
Fenninger, 21, had never previously won a race at the top level, although she has won four world titles at junior level.
In fourth place after the downhill leg, the 21-year-old charged down the slalom course to finish ahead of Slovenia's Tina Maze and Swede Anja Paerson, who took silver and bronze, respectively. Fenninger finished in an aggregate time of 2 minutes, 43.23 seconds to beat Maze by 0.09. Paerson trailed by 0.27.
Maze produced the fastest slalom with 52.94 seconds but had left herself too much to do after the downhill leg as she missed out on gold again.
The Slovenian won a silver in giant slalom at the last world championships two years ago and two silvers at the Vancouver Olympics last year.
Paerson won her 11th world championship medal, a total which includes seven golds.
Riesch, the current leader of the season-long World Cup and double gold medalist in Vancouver, was still suffering from a virus which forced her to spend Thursday in bed as she finished 11th, 1.91 second behind.
"I'm disappointed because I'm sick, not because of my result," said Riesch, bronze medalist in Tuesday's super-G.
"I was still happy to cross the finish in front of my home public. It's once in your life that you get to race the world championships at home. Of course, I didn't get any downhill training so I knew it would be hard to get a medal."
Three-time World Cup winner Vonn, Riesch's great rival, opted not to ski the slalom as the American continued to struggle with the affects of a training crash last week which left her with mild concussion.
Vonn said she had treated the downhill leg as a training run after finishing 12th.
Elisabeth Goergl, who led after the downhill and finished fifth, won Austria's first gold in Tuesday's super-G.
The world championships have also been marred by withdrawals in the men's competition.
Croat Ivica Kostelic, the current leader on the season-long World Cup circuit, will miss the downhill and super combined as will Switzerland's Carlo Janka, still struggling with the after-effects of a virus earlier this season.
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