Hermann Maier was quite disappointed when he left St. Anton last week after finishing the giant slalom in 4th place, only 1/100 of second behind the podium.

The Austrian superman was hoping to leave the World Championships with at least a gold medal after coming in 3rd in super G and 2nd in downhill, but the soft course conditions at St. Anton and the tough schedule (he had to compete in the GS a day after the downhill) prevented him from triumphing in front of his home-crowd.

"It’s fun to be back here; I have so many strong memories from this area."

On Thursday, he celebrated a sweet revenge in the Shiga Kogen giant slalom race, the first World Cup event after St. Anton. He crushed his rivals to win his ninth competition of the season and his fourth GS since the season opener in Soelden, Austria.

"The Herminator," Olympic Champion on this very same course in February 1998, just a week after his horrible crash in the downhill, dominated the rest of the field on an very icy course to beat by a devastating 1.74 seconds Marco Buechel from Liechtenstein. Benjamin Raich was 3rd at almost two seconds back.

Maier clocked the best time in both runs while Switzerland’s Michael von Gruenigen had to be content with a far 8th place. von Gruenigen, the new GS World Champion, a winner here in 1997 and bronze medalist in 1998, never found his rhythm today. He was only 13th in the first leg of the race and he was satisfied at the end to move up among the top-10.

This is his worse result of the season, having thus far always finished among the top-4. But now he will have three weeks to prepare for the World Cup Finals while Hermann is busy with some speed events in USA and Norway.

Another Austrian, Heinz Schilchegger was 4th in front of Finland’s Sami Uotila, who missed his first World Cup podium by a mere 24/100 of a second. Italy’s Massimiliano Blardone was a close 6th while France Frederic Covilli, the bronze medal winner at St. Anton, skied out in the first run.

America’s Erik Schlopy had a hard day. He only reached the 21st position, five seconds behind Maier.

With his 37th World Cup win, Maier got closer to von Greunigen in the GS World Cup standings — only 40 points separates the champions who have won all the GS World Cups since 1996. Only one GS is left on the schedule, at the Finals in Are, Sweden, in three weeks.

Hermann, who was disqualified at Val d’Isère for taking too much time inspecting the course before the first run, badly wants to once again take home the GS Crystal Trophy.

"I’m happy to have changed my mind about coming here, it has been a great comeback for me today," he said after the race. "It’s fun to be back here; I have so many strong memories from this area. The conditions today were perfect for me with this icy snow. It was for sure the toughest GS of the season, and may be even longer. The past GS races look like kid's competition compared to this one. This win makes the Finals at Are quite exciting, I’ll be fighting till the end," he added.

In 1999, Hermann also competed until the last race for the GS Crystal Cup, but lost it at Sierra Nevada after a fall only to take it back last winter.

Maier used a smart tactic, only arriving the night before the competition to avoid the jetlag which destroyed many of his rivals.

"I had a quick siesta after coming in then I went up to race as if it would be a night race, no problemo for me, I’m a man of the night anyway," he explained with a laugh. And a nightmare as well for the other skiers.

He left Japan as quickly as possible to move on to Salt Lake City, for the the "pre-Olympics" at Snowbasin where two downhills and a super G are planned for next week. There he will met other top guns who did not make the trip to Japan, such as Lasse Kjus from Norway, Stephan Eberharter from Austria or Switzerland’s Didier Cuche.

Another interesting duel is expected to take place now in the two coming slaloms between the best experts of the past months, the new World Champion Mario Matt and the leader in the World Cup standings and runner-up at St. Anton, Benjamin Raich. But another skier too will be very motivated — the 1998 Olympic Champion here, Norway’s Hans Petter Buraas. He is the only skier this season to have been able to beat the Austrian in a slalom.

— Manuèle Lang, World Cup Correspondent

Email this story to a friend