Alpine skiing: Slovenia’s Maze wins giant slalom

Slovenia’s Tina Maze competes in the women’s Alpine skiing World Cup Giant Slalom in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany yesterday.

Olympic silver medallist Tina Maze of Slovenia won the women’s giant slalom at the World Cup finals yesterday as second-placed Kathrin Hoelzl won the season’s giant slalom title.
The 26-year-old Maze, who finished second behind Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg in Vancouver, came down the Kandahar course in a winning time of 2min 10.72sec over the two runs.
Germany’s Hoelzl took second at just 0.03sec and the 80 points she won in Garmish-Partenkirchen gave her the overall giant slalom title for the season to add to her world championship gold from Val d’Isere last year.
“At the beginning of the race, I was only thinking about winning it and it was only afterwards that I realised I had won the globe as well,” said Hoelzl.
“I didn’t win a medal at the Olympic Games, so it is good to have some success in the World Cup.”
With the world championships taking place here next February, Hoelzl, who hails from nearby Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, said she is looking forward to racing in her own backyard.
“It will be great to have the world championships here next year, especially with all the support from the crowd,” said the 25-year-old.
“Things are good for the German team at the moment [with Rebensburg and Maria Riesch in form], we are drawing strength from each other.”
Hoelzl’s compatriot Riesch, who won the women’s downhill on Wednesday, was back on the podium again with third at 0.21sec back.
World Cup overall leader Lindsey Vonn, who crashed on the morning’s first run, was out of contention and was taken to hospital for checks having skied down the course after a heavy fall.
Riesch’s third place gave her 80 points and Vonn’s fall means the German has closed the gap behind the American starlet, who now has 1571 points compared to Riesch’s 1406 with two races remaing here.
Sweden’s Anja Pearson is way back in third with 1002 places having finished 13th at 1.74sec, while Olympic champion Rebensburg was fourth at 0.44sec.