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World class Maier wins World Cup duel with Von Gruenigen
Posted: Thursday November 25, 1999 01:07 AM
BEAVER CREEK, Colorado (AP) -- Switzerland's Michael Von Gruenigen boasts 16 career giant-slalom wins, a figure that ranks second only to Ingemar Stenmark's 46 among male World Cup skiers. Von Gruenigen, however, is having trouble adding to his total, and Austria's Hermann Maier is the reason. In a riveting duel between two skiers of contrasting styles, Maier's power prevailed over Von Gruenigen's precision in a men's World Cup giant slalom on Wednesday. Maier withstood a blistering second run by Von Gruenigen to beat his Swiss rival for the second time in as many GS races this season. Maier also closed out Von Gruenigen in the season-opening GS in Tignes, France, on Oct. 31. Downhill training runs were scheduled for today and Friday in preparation for Saturday's downhill race. Maier muscled his way down the long, grueling course to pace the first run with a time of 1 minute, 14.19 seconds, givinghim a lead of .38 seconds over Von Gruenigen. In the afternoon run on a sun-splashed Birds of Prey course, Von Gruenigen, the defending World Cup giant slalom champion, posted a time of 1:18.19 that was easily the fastest in the second heat. Responding to the threat, Maier came across in 1:18.29, just .10 behind, to protect his position. "I knew I had to do it," Maier said. "I'm very satisfied with my second run." Maier, who now has two victories in his campaign to recapture the World Cup overall title he claimed two seasons ago, had a combined time of 2:32.48. "I didn't train giant slalom much this summer and fall," Maier said. "I trained more in downhill. So I'm a little bit surprised my giant slalom is so good at the moment." Reminded that he previously won both a downhill and super-G in the world championships here last February as well as a World Cup super-G in 1998, Maier joked that "maybe I can find a nice piece of ground here and put up a home." Von Gruenigen, who finished in 2:32.76, said it was "motivation to go head-to-head with him. It's a challenge to beat him. I hope to beat Hermann once." Asked if he felt he had the race won after his quick second heat, Von Gruenigen said, "I was sure I had a good run, but I wasn't sure if it would be good enough to beat him. I thought if he makes no mistakes, too, then he also has a fast run." Von Gruenigen agreed that he and Maier "have different styles. That's true. But I think we ski the same line." Austrians Andreas Schifferer and Stephan Eberharter were third and fourth, respectively, in 2:33.63 and 2:34.09. Sweden's Fredrik Nyberg placed fifth in 2:34.14, followed by a pair of Norwegian veterans, Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Lasse Kjus, in 2:34.87 and 2:35.05, respectively. Benjamin Raich, a 21-year-old Austrian, was eighth in 2:35.06. Schifferer began the second run in third place, .54 seconds off the pace. No other racers were within one second of the lead, making the second heat likely a three-skier race. Four Americans finished among the top 30 and thus qualified for the second run. Dane Spencer wound up 19th in 2:36.26. Erik Schlopy was 21st and Thomas Vonn finished 24th in 2:36.70. Bode Miller, who slammed hard into a gate on his first run but continued on, got sideways and did not finish his second run. In the first run, Finland's Sami Uotila finished eighth in 1:15.47 but was disqualified for a ski equipment violation. The plate on his ski that provides lit for the boot was too high. It was the first such violation in World Cup history.
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