ALTA BADIA, 22 December 2003 — Italian Davide Simoncelli took up the mantle of Alberto Tomba by winning his first World Cup race yesterday in a giant slalom.
Simoncelli, who led after the first leg, held his nerve in the second run to beat Finland’s Kalle Palander and world champion Bode Miller of the United States.
The 24-year-old Simoncelli, who clocked two minutes 33.90 seconds, had shown his potential with second places last week and last season in Alta Badia, where former Olympic champion Tomba won four races in the 1980s and 1990s.
Although he made some slips on the top part of the icy course, Simoncelli recovered well to power over the line to the roars of the home crowd.
The aggressive Palander, who won here a week ago, was 1.03 seconds behind, with Miller, the victor in the season’s first two giant slaloms, a further 0.18 seconds back.
The home team had four men in the top 10, with Massimiliano Blardone fourth, Arnold Rieder seventh and Alberto Schieppati celebrating a career-best eighth place.
Tomba, now working for television, was among the first to congratulate a beaming Simoncelli at the finish line as a large crowd celebrated a rare moment of success for Italy in what has been a poor season so far.
“I was really nervous before the second race and I just couldn’t wait to get started,” said Simoncelli. “I made a few mistakes in the top section but that really woke me up and I knew I had to go for it then.
“I was aiming for top three here but I never expected to win — it’s wonderful.”
Miller, also Olympic silver medalist in giant, has been struggling for form recently and was pleased to have challenged for top spot.
“It’s a good feeling to be on the podium. I feel I can get back my momentum...I just need to have some time to train,” he said.
While the Italians enjoyed one of their best days for some time, it was a disappointing race for the usually dominant Austrians.
Benjamin Raich, fifth, was the highest-placed Austrian with Stephan Goergl in 14th the next best finisher.
Former world and Olympic champion Hermann Maier, who has earned 13 World Cup victories in giant, finished down in 26th place.
Women’s World Cup Super-G Called Off
In St. Moritz, Switzerland, for and high winds forced Alpine ski World Cup organizers to call off a women’s super-G race yesterday.
The race, the last women’s event before Christmas, had already been moved to St. Moritz from another Swiss resort, Laax, because of a lack of snow in the original venue. “The race was cancelled due to high wind and fog in the middle part of the slope,” said organizing committee media officer Claudio Duschletta.
“We made an early decision to allow people to leave for Christmas because they have been on the road a long time and there is no sense in keeping people around.”
Organizers said there was no immediate decision on when and where the race would be rescheduled.
Austrian Renate Goetschl, who won the downhill here on Saturday, had been hoping to extend her lead in the super-G World Cup standings with another good result.
The next women’s World Cup event will now be a giant slalom in Lienz, Austria, next Saturday.
Hoffmann Wins Maiden World Cup Nordic Race
In Ramsau, Austria’s Christian Hoffmann set up his 29th birthday celebrations perfectly yesterday by winning his first World Cup cross country skiing race.
Hoffmann, who was part of Austria’s world championship winning relay team in 1999, clocked 24min 21sec in the men’s 10km freestyle to hold off German pair Axel Teichmann and Tobias Angerer.
Teichmann was second at 7.8sec with Angerer third at 11.5.
Another German, Rene Sommerfeldt, came fifth to take over the overall lead of the World Cup. Hoffmann, who is only the third Austrian to win a Nordic World Cup race, will celebrate his 29th birthday today.
