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Alpine ski
The Austrian giant women’s slalom team achieved the expected improvement in both Courchevel races. With three places in the top ten and five active players in the top 14, after the disappointment at the start of Sölden, with 15th as the optimum, it was not necessarily to be expected.
But women’s race director Christian Mitter had announced in the run-up to the double at the French ski resort that there was some potential in the “giant.” It is important to build on this at the end of the month in Semmering.
“For me it is the most difficult discipline to line up because there are many options that are suitable for the World Cup and they already have points,” Mitter had explained in the run-up to the first giant double slalom since Semmering 2016. The deficiency of the compact team in Sölden was that the placements were 15-45 and not 1-30. The ÖSV women have now worked their way toward this goal quite well, and the expected top-five placement was also achieved.
More points from all teams
Liensberger managed to do this on Monday with fifth place and thus laid the foundation for the Austrians to rack up the most points in the two giant slalom races at Courchevel. No less than 339 points were accumulated for the team and national ranking. They are followed by the Italians with 299, the United States with 175 and the Swiss with 174 points. This is also important to regain the Nations Cup, in which ÖSV is currently 197 points behind Switzerland.
According to Mitter, the situation of ÖSV in the women’s giant slalom is different from that of the men’s, the density is higher. “From behind, everyone wants us to put something together in the giant slalom. We have to make sure we advance with the starting numbers. ” The last RTL podium place for the ÖSV was not so long ago with Liensberger’s third place at the end of December 2019, the last victory so far with Eva-Maria Brem already in March 2016.
Brunner fights back
After finishing 32nd on Saturday, the Tyrolean appeared 28th in points on Monday. His compatriot Stephanie Brunner has a much stronger uptrend. After her first cruciate ligament tear in 2018, the 26-year-old took the podium in her second race, now moving up to sixth place as a result of her third cruciate ligament tear. “You have to fight from the first goal,” he said.
Ricarda Haaser established herself in eighteenth and eighth places as the third giant slalom player for the ÖSV team, so Katharina Truppe is now number four after eleventh and twelve places. Seven Austrians reached the points on Saturday and eight on Monday. On both occasions with Ramona Siebenhofer, Franziska Gritsch and Elisa Mörzinger. Previous world-class giant slalom player Brem completed the octet on Monday.
