Felix Neureuther of Germany won the World Cup parallel slalom here on Friday in an event staged on an artificial slope to help promote Russia’s readiness to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

France’s Jean-Baptiste Grange was second with American superstar Bode Miller taking third ahead of compatriot Ted Ligety in a competition held in the shadow of the Kremlin.

“I feel great,” Neureuther said. “It’s natural to feel great when you win.

“It was very interesting to compete on this artificial ramp. It’s completely different to a natural slope, but still a really challenging and interesting experience.”

The 24-year-old Neureuther defeated Bernard Vajdic of Slovenia in the opening round, Austria’s Mario Matt in the quarter-final and Ligety in the semis before beating FIS World Cup slalom section leader Grange in the deciding races.

Neureuther won the first leg of the final and finished even with the Frenchman in the second.

The referees decided to give the finalists the third deciding attempt but Grange missed his chance as he fell in the middle of the distance.

A special 200m artificial ski slope, with a 56m drop in height, was constructed within the campus of Moscow State University specially for the event.

The organisers however had to bring to Moscow a caravan of refrigerators with more than 3,000 cubic metres of natural snow from Siberia to provide the competitors with a top-class surface that fit strict FIS demands.

from: google.com

Semmering, Austria - Reigning World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) marked her third slalom podium of the year, taking the number three spot in Semmering Monday. Hailey Duke (Boise, ID) had a career-best finish, coming in eighth. Germany’s Maria Riesch won for her second slalom victory in a row.
Riesch, the leader after the opening run, beat out Finland’s Tanja Poutiainen by 0.21 seconds. Vonn finished in a two-run time of 1:56.69.

“Slalom has been going really well for me this season. It’s such a big difference from last year and I feel really good about it,” Vonn said. “Today, for sure, I didn’t have a great first run but I was able to come back. I fought hard.”

According to Vonn, the second run course was more her racing style and that’s where she gained her speed.

“The second run was a great course and it definitely suited me better so I tried to use that opportunity,” Vonn said. “I was able to make up some time. It wasn’t enough to get the top spot, but it’s OK, I’m really happy with third.”

For U.S. Ski Team Women’s Alpine Tech Coach Trevor Wagner, Vonn’s second runs are her strength this season.

“She poured it on in the second run. That seems to be where she is really strong this year. She skied a lot more aggressively right out of the start,” Wagner said. “She is really an all around skier. She’s capable of being on the podium in every event.”

Vonn’s next slalom is in Zagreb and, she hopes, will be an opportunity for her to regain her lead in the slalom.

“Zagreb is great. I didn’t race there last year because of the schedule, so I’m excited for it and hopefully I can get the red [slalom leader's] bib back.” Vonn said.

Vonn, who marked her 35th World Cup podium on Monday, retains the overall lead in the World Cup standings.

Career-best for Duke

Following Vonn for the U.S. was Hailey Duke (Boise, ID), who had a career-best finish, coming in eighth. Duke made the first second run of her career in the Aspen Winternational World Cup.

“It was a total surprise. The whole experience was pretty cool,” Duke said. “I love night slalom, so the whole atmosphere was a big party. Standing at the bottom watching people come down, I was psyched.”

According to Wagner, Duke has been putting in the training hours to get where she is.

“For Hailey it’s an incredible day,” Wagner said. “All the stuff that she’s been working on is finally clicking. In the last 10 days or so it has clicked and the last two slaloms have been great.”

Duke plans to follow her same routine, which she believes will get her where she wants to be.

“I’ll just keep working on the things I have been. There’s more confidence, more stuff in the bank, and I’m just going to keep charging,” Duke said. “I have to keep throwing myself down the hill because I’m not there yet. I just want to keep doing it and keep getting those second runs under the belt.”

Mancuso rounded out the U.S. women in the top 30, finishing 16th for her best slalom result this season.

Acton best among Canadians

Brigitte Acton (Mont-Tremblant, QC) was near a career best result, finishing 19th Monday while Anna Goodman (Pointe Claire, QC) had one of the best second runs of her career to place 21st overall.

“I don’t think the fact it was a night slalom worked to my advantage or disadvantage today. I tried to make sure that it did not affect my preparation. It was a slight advantage for me in that I had just returned from North America and I’ve had a bit of the flu. Having the race start a little later allowed me to get maybe a little more rest, which was good,” said Acton, whose career best SL result is 18th in Aspen in 2006.

Acton, who was 23rd after the opening run, finished in a two-run combined time of exactly two minutes.

Goodman was 29th after the opening run but, boosted by the sixth fastest second run, she ended up 21st in a two-run combined time of 2:00.28.

“It’s just great that it is the two of us. We have been friends since we were kids and we make sure that it’s a lot of fun and we are having a good time. We can also push each other at the same time,” Acton said. “We are both skiing really well but neither of us are satisfied, we know that better results are out there.”

Next up: Croatia

The women compete next in Zagreb, Croatia, Jan. 4, one of three ladies slalom races to come in the month of January..

“We’ve got good slalom going on now and if we roll in there and ski like we were skiing here it could be as good or even better,” Wagner said.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2009 AUDI FIS WORLD CUP
Semmering, Austria - Dec. 29, 2008
Women’s Slalom

1. Maria Riesch, Germany, 1:55.97
2. Tanja Poutiainen, Finland, 1:56.18
3. Lindsey Vonn, Vail, CO, 1:56.69
4. Kathrin Zettel, Austria, 1:56.90
5. Sarka Zahrobska, Czech Republic, 1:57.04

source: firsttracksonline.com

Teichmann completed the classical style race in 39 minutes 3.7 seconds. Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway was five seconds behind and Nikolay Chebotko of Kazakhstan was third, 10.5 seconds off the pace.

Devon Kershaw, a native of Sudbury, Ont., finished in 14th place. Dario Cologna of Switzerland was 15th and remains the tour’s leader with an overall time of one hour 24 minutes and 36.9 seconds. Ivan Babikov of Canmore, Alta., was 25th and George Grey of Rossland, B.C., was 49th.

Kuitunen led a Finnish double, completing the women’s 9K race in 24:45.4 to take the overall tour lead. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen was second and Norway’s Marit Bjorgen third. Sara Renner of Canmore, Alta., was 11th.

The tour will continue with sprint events in the Czech resort on Thursday.

The races are part of the third edition of the Tour de Ski. The tour includes seven races in nine days, and the overall time winner gets 400 World Cup points.

source: google.com

Harbin, capital city of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province and host to the 2009 Winter Universiade, is considering a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, senior officials revealed two months before the opening of the Universiade, from Feb 18-28.
“If the hosting of the 2009 Winter Universiade can win applause from all the guests, it will enhance our confidence to bid for the Winter Olympic Games,” said Li Zhanshu, governor of Heilongjiang province. “We are considering a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, although the decision has to be approved by Chinese sports authorities.”

Harbin, dubbed as “ice city” due to its beautiful scenery in winter, failed to make the short list for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, but won hosting rights for the 2009 Winter Universiade four years ago.
Vancouver, Canada, will host the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Harbin didn’t launch a bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics, which was awarded in Sochi, Russia.
For hosting China’s first Winter Olympics, the governor expressed his confidence.
“One of the important goals of bidding for a Winter Universiade is to accumulate experience for hosting a Winter Olympics. The infrastructure here in Harbin has already been qualified for the Winter Universiade, which has the second largest number of winter sports following the Winter Olympics,” Li said. “We will continue to improve our weak points according to the feedback from Universiade participants and visit Vancouver and Sochi to learn more.
“If we fail again for the 2018 Games, we are determined to win the 2022 Winter Games. It’s our dream to host China’s first Winter Olympics.”

Winter tourism boosted
Through hosting the Winter Universiade and preparing for Olympic bidding, Harbin, famous dazzling outdoor ice sculptures, is counting on a tourism boost.
“Harbin has built up the best venues among all the host cities of the Winter Universiade and it is a golden opportunity to promote the city’s rich tourism resources in winter,” said Li. “We have already designed four tourism lines for the visitors to experience ice and snow in the whole province and we hope the hosting city of a Winter Universiade could be a new name card for the city and even the whole province.”
At present, Heilongjiang province hosts almost 40 million tourists annually, about 5 million of whom are attracted by high-standard ski resorts.
“With rich ice and snow resources, Heilongjiang province could be called the biggest tourism province in the northern part of China. We will further promote our winter tourism with the platform of the Winter Universiade and upgrade our services level,” said Li.

And the sluggish American skiers continue to take a long time getting to the bottom.

The good news for the U.S. skiers Saturday was that they crashed less than they did in Friday’s downhill. The bad news is they failed to reach the podium for a second consecutive day on a hill where they have enjoyed a home-slope advantage in recent years.

Europeans dominated the super-G Saturday, with Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, a dramatic winner in Friday’s downhill on the same treacherous Birds of Prey course where a year ago he suffered season-ending injuries, claiming his second victory in two days.

Almost as impressive was the second-place finish of Austrian legend Hermann Maier, who, on the eve of his 36th birthday, reached the podium for the second time in a week. He won a super-G last Sunday in Lake Louise, Alberta.
Svindal said it was an honor to share the podium with Maier, whose 54 career World Cup victories are second only to Swedish gate-runner Ingemar Stenmark’s 86.

“He’s one of the biggest legends in Alpine racing,” Svindal said of Maier. “He’s definitely back now.”

Maier returned the compliment to Svindal, 25, the 2007 World Cup overall champ who moved into the overall lead with Saturday’s victory.

“He can maybe be a successor,” said Maier, who has won four overall World Cup titles but slipped to 19th and 21st in the overall standings the past two seasons. “Maybe he can step into my feets, or maybe better ones.”

Maier, while standing second in the overall standings, said winning an overall title is no longer a goal.

“My goal is just to be good in the fast disciplines (downhill and super-G),” he said. “I don’t have to be concerned about every race any more. At my age, I can be more relaxed.

“I’m very happy to ski at this level at this age. That is a great present.”

Whether he will try to ski another season past this one — and compete at the Vancouver Olympics — is unknown. “I just don’t know,” he said. “That’s too far away.”

Third place went to another veteran Austrian star, 33-year-old Michael Walchhofer.

U.S. skier Bode Miller, the defending World Cup overall champion, continued a ragged week of racing that saw him drop to ninth in the overall standings.

He showed up for the super-G Saturday morning with several cuts and scrapes on his face, the result of a face-first crash in Friday’s downhill.

He didn’t fall Saturday, but it was something of a miracle he didn’t, after getting thrown about on the upper section of the course and making an impressive recovery just to stay on his skis. He finished 14th.

“I’m a little bit sore,” Miller said. Of his race Saturday, he said, “When you make a mistake, it usually takes you out.”

The other American downhill/super-G contenders finished well back. Marco Sullivan and Steven Nyman, both considered capable of podium finishes on this hill, were 22nd and 25th, respectively.

The pleasant surprise for the U.S. Ski Team was the performance of Ted Ligety, who survived a near-disaster on a long jump and put up a solid seventh-place finish.

Ligety, 24, the 2006 Olympic combined gold medalist and reigning World Cup giant slalom champion, plans to skip a lot of speed events this season and focus on slalom and giant slalom. So, a top-10 finish in super-G is an encouraging sign for him.

Ligety should have a solid shot at winning in Sunday’s giant slalom, the last World Cup event in North America before the tour heads to Europe.

source: usatoday.com