Tanja Poutiainen won a World Lindsey Vonn retained
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Tanja Poutiainen won a World Cup giant slalom yesterday, but American Lindsey Vonn retained her overall lead after finishing 19th.
Poutiainen posted a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 26.51 seconds on the Olympia delle Tofane course in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, showing that the technical specialist from Finland has fully recovered from a back problem just in time for the Vancouver Olympics.
Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany finished a distant 1.05 seconds behind for the first podium appearance of her career, and giant slalom world champion Kathrin Hoelzl of Germany placed third, 1.45 seconds behind.
Vonn has a 56-point lead in the overall standings on Maria Riesch of Germany, who took eighth.
Vonn was coming off super-G and downhill victories in the last two days, but giant slalom is the event she has the most difficulty with: She has never finished on the podium in it.
Miller skips race. Felix Neureuther of Germany earned his first career World Cup victory, winning a slalom that American Bode Miller skipped to rest a sore ankle.
The 25-year-old Neureuther finished in a two-run combined time of 1:37.35 on the icy Ganslern course in Kitzbuehel, Austria. His victory came 31 years after his father had won there.
Miller did not race because his right ankle hurt too much after prerace warm-ups.
“Bode wanted to ski fast in Wengen, in Kitzbuehel, and at the Olympics,” U.S. team spokesman Doug Haney said. “So, now he is obviously building up toward Vancouver.”
Canadians win skicross. Canada’s Christopher Delbosco and Kelsey Serwa won the World Cup skicross races in Wilmington, N.Y.
Delbosco beat Andreas Matt of Austria and Canadian teammate David Duncan across the line at Whiteface Mountain, while Daron Rahlves of the United States finished fourth after a three-week layoff.
Biathlon’s best. Andrea Henkel led a 1-2 German finish in a women’s 10-kilometer World Cup biathlon pursuit race in Anterselva, Italy.
Henkel moved to second from fifth in the World Cup standings with 465 points. Sweden’s Helena Jonsson leads with 536.
U.S. biathlete Tim Burke did not compete and dropped to fifth in the World Cup standings with 393 points.
Germans win Nordic combined. Host Germany won the first Nordic combined World Cup team event of the season in Schonach to increase its lead in the Nations Cup.
Georg Hettich, Eric Frenzel, Bjoern Kircheisen, and Tino Edelmann combined for 469.3 points from the jumping portion for a 10-second lead in the 4×5-kilometer cross-country race, which they won in 42:49.4.
The top Americans took a break from World Cup competition to prepare for the Vancouver Olympics. But Bryan Fletcher, Taylor Fletcher, Alex Miller and Nick Henderson combined to give the U.S. team a ninth-place finish.
Lange leads Germany. Andre Lange of Germany won the season-ending four-man World Cup bobsled race to capture the European championship title.
Lange teamed with Rene Hoppe, Kevin Kuske, and Martin Putze to finish in a two-run combined time of 1:42.59 on the 1976 Olympic track in Igls, Austria.
The U.S. team had already secured the overall World Cup title last week.
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