CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, 18 January 2004 — Hilde Gerg of Germany pushed herself into contention for the overall World Cup title yesterday with her first downhill victory of the season.
Gerg, the most consistent skier on the women’s circuit this season with two wins and six podium places, clocked one minute 17.57 seconds down a shortened Cortina course to consolidate third place in the standings.
Renate Goetschl, looking to follow up her victory in Friday’s super-G, had to be content with second place with a time of 1:17.87 but it was enough to send her top of the overall standings by one point from Anja Paerson.
Austrian Goetschl has 789 points with slalom specialist Paerson, 24th in the downhill, on 788. Gerg, who leads the downhill and super-G standings, has 710 points.
Olympic downhill champion Carole Montillet holds on to fourth place overall after finishing third.
Gerg’s victory, the 18th of her career, is her first in the speed discipline since returning from a serious knee injury that sidelined her for much of last season and prompted her to consider retiring.
“After my injury the aim was to get back racing downhill again,” she said. “To win seemed impossible but I’ve done it.
“I started my comeback slowly and didn’t take any risks in training but with my experience I have learnt when to start taking risks,” she said.
Overnight snow and poor visibility led organizers to shorten the course and the soft surface penalized early runners but Gerg said she had not allowed the difficulties to distract her. “Conditions were very hard but you have to ignore that, you can’t always have the best conditions,” said Gerg. “I just stayed focused on the race, that is all you can do in that situation.”
But the German, who is not yet competing in slalom, played down the suggestion that she could challenge Goetschl and Paerson for the overall title.
With a second downhill at Cortina scheduled for Sunday Gerg could further close the gap on Paerson while Goetschl will look to extend her advantage before the slalom and giant slalom races in Maribor, Slovenia next weekend. Goetschl said she was pleased to have taken over top spot but said there had been no decisive shift in her favor.
