BORMIO, Italy, 30 December 2005 — American Daron Rahlves won his second downhill of the Alpine ski World Cup season yesterday to take the lead in the overall standings.
Rahlves, who won a world championship downhill silver medal in Bormio in February, clocked one minute 57.68 seconds to beat 2002 Olympic champion Fritz Strobl of Austria by 0.32 seconds. Switzerland’s Tobias Gruenenfelder was third, just 0.03 further back, after crashing at the finish line. He received treatment for an injured knee in the finish area.
The start of the race was delayed for 30 minutes after a forerunner crashed into safety netting. Another delay of 10 minutes followed when the 24th racer, Austrian Hans Grugger who won a super-G in Val Gardena earlier this month, also crashed and was airlifted off the Stelvio slope. Californian Rahlves, 32, had dominated training in Bormio, one of his favorite stops on the season-long World Cup tour.
“That is a serious downhill track where you have guys fighting against the hill,” said Rahlves, who also won here in 2002.
“It is just one of those places for me like Beaver Creek and Kitzbuehel. It just seems to get me pumped up. It is a very technically demanding course. So many downhills are getting easier and slower with the turns but I like these high-speed, straight sections.” Rahlves recovered from mistakes near the top of the course and said: “It is more about instinct than rational thought.” The American took over the cup lead from Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal who missed the race after breaking a rib in a training crash in Val Gardena.
Schild and Hosp Take Top Spots in Lienz Slalom
Marlies Schild and Nicole Hosp gave Austria a one-two home victory in yesterday’s Alpine ski World Cup slalom race.
Schild successfully defended her first-run lead to seal her fifth World Cup career title with an overall time of one minute 57.92 seconds — 1.02 seconds ahead of Hosp.
Croatia’s triple Olympic champion Janica Kostelic took third place a further 0.71 seconds back to overtake Sweden’s Anja Paerson at the top of the women’s overall standings.
Paerson, who beat Kostelic to last season’s overall title by just three points, suffered a rare off-day when she crashed out early in the slalom’s opening run.
