Lindsey Vonn of the US showed she had fully recovered from a stomach complaint that has hampered her recent performances by winning the Cortina d’Ampezzo World Cup Super-G for the third year in succession yesterday.
Vonn, who finished second to local hero Daniela Merighetti in Saturday’s downhill, clocked 1 minute, 26.16 seconds.
After winning the first two Super-Gs of the season in Lake Louise and Beaver Creek, Vonn had finished a disappointing 18th last weekend in Bad Kleinkircheim.
Defending World Cup champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch was second, 0.61 seconds behind.
Giant slalom world champion Tina Maze of Slovenia was third, a further 0.25 seconds behind.
Yesterday’s victory was Vonn’s 47th, making her the third-most successful skier in the women’s World Cup behind Austria’s Anne-Marie Moser-Proell on 62 and Swiss Vreni Schneider on 55.
The American leads Maze by 291 points in the overall World Cup standings.
“I’m back,” Vonn told reporters. “To get two podiums in Cortina, including a win, is important. This is such a great event and this is where I made my first podium 10 years ago.”
“The top three on the podium are the girls who will battle it out for the World Cup,” she added.
MEN’S SLALOM
AP, WENGEN, SWITZERLAND
Ivica Kostelic proved the master of Wengen yet again yesterday, winning a World Cup slalom to close the gap on overall standings leader Marcel Hirscher.
Kostelic was almost flawless in the second run to finish 0.85 seconds ahead of Andre Myhrer of Sweden. Fritz Dopfer of Germany was third, 0.88 seconds behind.
The 32-year-old Croatian has now won five of the past seven World Cup events raced at the storied Swiss venue since January 2010.
Kostelic’s 22nd career World Cup victory was his third straight in the Wengen slalom and cut Hirscher’s lead to 30 points.
Hirscher was disqualified after being fastest in the first run because he straddled a gate.
“It happens. What should I say? I skied an awesome run,” Hirscher said. “Everybody can see that I am really, really fast. And that is pretty cool.”
The Austrian had been unbeaten this year, winning his past three races.
Just 41 of 70 starters posted legal, completed their first runs on a clear, icy day on the Jungfrau course, which adjoins the Lauberhorn slope that staged the marquee downhill race on Saturday.
Hirscher said he had not realized that he straddled the gate.
“I feel something, but I couldn’t feel exactly what happens,” the 22-year-old Austrian said. “Sometimes you hit the gate pretty close and then there’s not a difference between straddling and hitting a gate pretty hard.”
“I have to cancel this race out of my mind and look forwards,” he said.
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