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Mancuso 8th, Four Teammates in Top 30
SPINDLERUV MLYN, Czech Republic (Jan. 5) - Olympic champion Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) led four teammates into the World Cup points Saturday in an Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom. Italy's Denise Karbon stayed unbeaten after four GS races. Mancuso was ninth with Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) 11th, Libby Ludlow (Bellevue, WA) 24th, Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) 27th and Jessica Kelley (Starksboro, VT) 29th. WCSN.com will provide same-day, on-demand webstreaming at 4 p.m. ET.
Karbon struggled at the top of her final run, but straightened things out through the middle section and went on to win in 2:16.98. Finn Tanja Poutiainen was second in 2:17.37. Mancuso finished eighth with a time of 2:18.45 and Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) in 11th. Vonn laid down the third-fastest second run to move up nine places and protect her second spot in the World Cup overall standings. Mancuso is third in the GS points.
Other Americans in the second run included Libby Ludlow (Bellevue, WA) in 25th place, Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) in 28th after starting 58th and Jessica Kelley (Starksboro, VT) 30th.
"Some mixed emotion today. You always want someone on the podium and when you've got five going, you can get a little greedy," said Coach Chris Knight. "It's been a long time since we've had five in the second run and now we're putting three, four, five girls in there each time and I'm happy about that. So are the girls.
"Jules had some fantastic sections but a couple of mistakes cost her on the first run. Then she took more risks on the second run. A couple of sections were right there with her best GS and a few more days of training should be even more help for her," Knight said. "Lindsey was fantastic, too. It's a great result for her. She let it go. That's three top-30s in a row for Libby, who can go faster, and for Stacey to come from starting so far back and score is incredible."
Although the sun was shining with temperatures in the upper teens, the course was in the shade and created some tricky, flat light situations. "The snow conditions, though, were perfect. They injected [i.e., put water into the snow to turn it icy and hard] a couple of weeks ago and then they've had snow, so it's hard and great for racing," Knight said.
The women run a slalom Sunday before heading to Maribor, Slovenia, for another weekend of gate-running.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2008 AUDI FIS ALPINE WORLD CUP
Spindleruv Mlyn, CZE - Jan. 5, 2008
Women's Giant Slalom
1. Denise Karbon, Italy, 2:16.98
2. Tanja Poutiainen, Finland, 2:17.37
3. Elisabeth Goergl, Austria, 2:17.57
4. Kathrin Zettel, Austria, 2:17.80
5. Nicole Hosp, Austria, 2:17.90
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11. Lindsey Vonn, Vail, CO, 2:19.25
25. Libby Ludlow, Bellevue, WA, 2:20.21
27. Stacey Cook, Mammoth Mountain, CA, 2:21.09
29. Jessica Kelley, Starksboro, VT, 2:27.97
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Did not qualify for 2nd run:
Megan McJames, Park City, UT; Lauren Ross, Stowe, VT; Caitlin Ciccone, Bethlehem, NH
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Mancuso 8th, Four Teammates in Top 30
