Last weekend (end Feb) - Are & Bansko +

The Alpine Ski World Cup gets back underway after the World Championships in Garmisch; the Ladies are in Are (Sweden) and the men in Bansko (Bulgaria). After the first Downhill training run for women, Anja Paerson was fastest ahead of Vonn and Riesch. Schedule is:

Ladies: 25 Feb - Super Combined; 26 Feb - Downhill; 27 Feb - Super G
Men:  26 Feb - Super Combined; 27 Feb - Slalom

We also have British athletes in Königsee this weekend for the skeleton World Cup (25/26 Feb); no Amy Williams alas, but Sheeley Rudman and Donna Creighton are, as far as I know, scheduled to compete.

And some good news; Hans Grugger has left intensive care, slightly early, and has moved to start his rehabilitation process - seems to be recovering well from a bad crash in the Kitzbühel downhill training in late January.

Early update from Are on the Women's Super Kombi, after the downhill section: Probably we could have predicted that Lindsey Vonn would be in front at this stage (?), but it's all very close and the slalom at 12:30 UK time should be a cracker. At this stage the standings are:
1 - Lindsey Vonn (USA)
2 - Maria Riesch (Ger), +0.16
3 - Lizzie Görgl (Aut), +0.35
4 - Anja Pärson (Swe), +0.42
5 - Julia Mancuso (USA), +0.45
6 - Anna Fenninger (Aut), +0.50

With the top 10 separated by only 1.04 seconds, some of whom are better at slalom than others, it should be very exciting this afternoon!

So, after the 2nd run ...

With the top 30 going in reverse order, after 15 racers had completed the course Elena Curtoni was leading from Marion Pellissier - not sure what the ZDF ticker was doing as it showed Tessa Worley in joint second on the same time as Marion, although the "official" banners at Are suggested this was wrong and ZDF eventually amended their list.

Then came the Österreichisches Fünferpack (as ZDF called it - I do love some of the phrases they use!), after which we had Kirchgasser and Hosp in the top 2 places - not for long though as Tina Maze produced what the Eurosport team reckoned was perhaps her best slalom run of the season to take the lead. In the end only Maria Riesch could overtake her, to get another very useful 100 points in the World Cup; final result (if all the systems are showing the correct info now!):

1 Maria Riesch (Ger)
2 Tina Maze (Slo) +0.40
3 Lizzie Görgl (Aut) +0.66

Localmatadorin Anja Paerson was 4th, Kirchgasser 5th and Lindsey Vonn 6th - Downhill tomorrow!

Been away doing my own sport so missed the live action - however ...

In Bansko it was the Men's Super Combined. Christof Innerhofer (ITA) took this by the smallest possible margin (0.01 seconds) from Germany's Felix Neureuther with Frenchman Thomas Mermillod Blondin (new name to me) in third. Ted Ligety 4th, Ivica Kostelic 5th (which I think gives him the combined title this year?) and Ondrej Bank in 6th - more details at: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/26022011/58/innerhofer-resumes-winning-ways.html

Meanwhile in Are conditions seemed quite testing with a difficult and icy women's downhill course, which caused a number of DNFs. Nadja Kamer seems to have had a really bad fall and was lifted out on a stretcher - Eurosport reports her coach as saying she has arm pains but no fractures have been detected; ZDF are just saying that they have no more news at present - all best wishes to her for a speedy recovery. Among the other DNFs were local Anja Paerson and Lizzie Görgl, both of whom apaprently went out at the same point as Kamer. In the end Lindsey Vonn won from Tina Maze (+0.13) with Maria Riesch in third (+0.21); this means Riesch loses 40 points to Vonn in their increasingly intriguing title race - go Maria!! Again more details at (among others):
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/26022011/58/vonn-returns-form-downhill-win.html

Out again - more sport in the pouring rain - so once more I missed the live action! In Are it was the Women's Super G today - yet another really close finish with Maria Riesch taking the first place from arch rival Lindsey Vonn by 1/100th of a second; Maria now has 1516 points in the overall World Cup to Lindsey's 1320 with 9 races to go. Although only 4 of these are speed disciplines, which might favour Vonn, anything can happen - it's an outdoor sport after all, so hopefully a good competition to the end. It seems though (from what I read) that Lindsey should win more crystal globes for individual disciplines, even if she loses the "big one". In third place was Julia Mancuso (+0.79) with Nicole Hosp 4th, missing the podium by just 0.02 seconds. Anja Paerson didn't finish, and apparently has injured her knee - no more detail, but a disappointing home event for her. Yesterday's crash involving Nadja Kramer seems to have been not as serious as it could have been - mild concussion and a broken finger - very lucky considering! All the best to both.

In Bansko it was Men's Slalom time; again a close finish with Mario Matt getting the win from fellow Austrian Reinhold Herbst by 0.04 seconds. Jean-Baptiste Grange was third, and as Ivica Kostelic straddled a gate in run 1, this closes the gap between them in the slalom standings to 60 (??) points. Felix Neureuther was 4th.

In the Skeleton Worlds in Königsee Latvian Martin Dukurs took gold ahead of Russia’s Alexander Tretiakov with Frank Rommel coming in third to give the home crowd something to cheer! Great Britain’s Kristan Bromley finished sixth; Chris Type and Andy Wood were 14th and 16th respectively. In the women's races Marion Thees successfully defended her title, winning the gold from fellow German Anja Huber - lots more for the home crowd to cheer! Melissa Hollingsworth (Can) was third; the British hope was Shelley Rudman - unfortunately she had a poor first day and despite putting in her best time of the event in her final run ended up 4th, just missing out on a podium; Donna Creighton was 13th overall.