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Austrian men going for

The Austrian men's skiing team will be looking to match the success of their female compatriots in the World Cup events that start with the giant slalom today.

The women's team last year won all the major World Cup trophies including the overall World Cup, won by Nicole Hosp, while the men could only manage a win in the slalom by Benjamin Raich.

TRANSITION

"For the past three years we have been going through a transition phase with the men, which we have been trying to achieve by gradually renewing the team," director of the Austrian Ski Federation Hans Pum said on Friday.

One of the pillars of the Austrian team, Raich, 29, is determined to win back the crystal globe that he won in 2005, before losing it to Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal.

"The globe clearly remains the objective for me. It will be difficult but I want to take my revenge and that's what makes it exciting," he said. "But for that I will have to be more consistent in the downhill and the super-G."

Svindal paid tribute to his rival saying: "Raich represents the biggest danger, before [Swiss, Didier] Cuche, [American, Bode] Miller and a few others."

EXCELLENT SEASON

During last season, Raich and compatriot Mario Matt led Austria to an excellent slalom season with five wins and 13 placings but in other events the Austrians' performances tailed off.

This year Raich will, for the first time since 1994, be the only Austrian competitor among the 15 finalists for the giant slalom.

In a bid to improve Austria's overall performance Hermann Maier, the aging triple world champion, is targetting the downhill along with compatriot Michael Walchhoffer, who won the event twice for Austria last season.

"To win the World Cup downhill again remains our major goal this season," Pum said.
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