09 MAR 2001 > Women's Super G
Victories for Rey-Bellet and Cavagnoud,
Men's SG Cancelled
Race Results

Switzerland's Corinne Rey-Bellet and France's Régine Cavagnoud are the big winners after the second day of competition at the finals in Are, Sweden. Rey-Bellet won the last super G race of the season while the Cavagnoud clinched her first ever World Cup title in that event after a dramatic race marked by numerous crashes.

The race started in the afternoon three hours late and an hour after the men's super G was cancelled due to fog. The men's cancellation did not affect the World Cup, as Hermann Maier was already 174 points in front of his teammate Christophe Gruber in the super G standings. But Maier lost a chance for victory. He has one opportunity left in Saturday's GS to tie Ingemar Stenmark's record of 13 wins in a World Cup season.

"It's great to win the Crystal Globe that way, a month after the gold medal..."

In the women's race, Rey-Bellet, famous on the World Cup tour since her impressive double win at St. Anton in January 1999, beat by 69/100 of a second Canada's Mélanie Turgeon while Cavagnoud came in 3rd at 75/100. This strong performance, Rey-Bellet's seventh top-3 super G result this winter, helped the France's Cavagnoud to win the title and Crystal Globe with a lead of 111 points over Renate Goetschl, only 8th.

After a strong season start which saw her reaching the podium several times in three specialties, the 30-year-old Swiss Rey-Bellet was unlucky at Haus im Ennstal in the middle of January when she crashed with the best intermediate downhill time.

She needed some time to recover but failed to clinch a medal as she hoped last month at the Worlds in St. Anton. She finished 4th twice, the worst position to be in, narrowly missing a medal.

"I fought hard today because I thought I could have a good chance," Rey-Bellet said. "I remained very focused the entire day and didn't let myself be distracted. It's a great win which gives me much momentum for the next season."

Canada's Turgeon was quite glad too. She has not reached the podium since the races at Haus in January. "The 4th place in downhill was a good boost for my morale and I was very determined today, but it was not easy to remain concentrated this afternoon," she explained.

"I finished the standings in both speed events among the top-10, which is very important to me. I was pretty consistent this winter but now I want more. I know I can ski faster," Turgeon added.

But it was also a good afternoon for Croatia's Janica Kostelic, an excellent 7th despite a cautious run. Kostelic, who suffers from a knee injury to her left meniscus which she injured earlier this week, beat Goetschl, the former world best specialist in that event, by a few hundredths of a second.

No US skier scored any points. Kirsten Clark crashed out in the upper part of the course. In fact, only 12 out of 21 skiers finished that race. Italy's Isolde Kostner and Sweden's Pernilla Wiberg were among the favorites who crashed or skied out.

But the happiest skier this afternoon was Cavagnoud, who has been quite nervous the past few days. "I felt the pressure in the past weeks. I was not able to ski as smoothly as earlier this winter," she said. "After my huge mistake in the downhill, I tried to be more conservative today not to take too many risks. I'm really pleased to reach the podium again. It's great to win the Crystal Globe that way, a month after the gold medal. It has been an amazing season for me, but I aim to win the overall cup now. I have to progress in giant slalom or win all races in one event as Janica Kostelic, but this is quite difficult."

In the slalom, Kostelic has a chance to definitely clinch the overall title, which seemed out of reach to her earlier this season. She starts with a lead of 43 points. "I will try my best in the slalom but I suffer from my left knee, so I don't know how I will ski tomorrow," she said. "Today I was very cautious and I'm surprised to be so close to the leaders despite my poor skiing. I feel relaxed for the moment and I wish to have fun again in the slalom."

— Patrick Lang, World Cup Correspondent

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