Mancuso wins gold as Vonn misses gate

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany - Reuters

Julia Mancuso competes in the Super-G World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

American Julia Mancuso won her first Super-G in five years in Garmisch-Partenkirchen yesterday as an error by compatriot Lindsey Vonn meant the overall World Cup leader failed to finish. 

Mancuso was the only skier to fully tame the tricky Kandahar 2 course and won with a time of one minute and 20.5 seconds. 

Second place went to Austria’s Anna Fenninger, 0.13 behind Mancuso, while Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein was third 0.45 behind the winner. 

The cold, sticky snow, similar to conditions in North America, should also have suited favorite Vonn, who won Saturday’s downhill, but with a rare mistake she lost her balance halfway down and missed a gate. 

“I’m so unused to it that I didn’t know what to do or where to go,” the 27-year-old said. “I’m not sad or disappointed. I have a right to go wrong from time to time. I could feel it coming because yesterday, I found myself on my bottom a couple of times,” she added. 

Vonn’s closest rival in the overall World Cup, Slovenian Tina Maze, also failed to complete the course. Vonn has 1,350 points to Maze’s 868. A three-time winner of the overall crystal globe, Vonn said she was looking forward to next week’s races in Soldeu with another goal in mind. 

“I’m third in the giant slalom World Cup and I’ve never been in that position before. I’m going there to win as the giant slalom World Cup is now a real goal. It would be another dream to achieve,” she said. 

It was Mancuso’s sixth World Cup victory and her first in a Super-G since 2007, but hardly a surprise to the American who was silver-medallist at the world championships on the same piste a year ago. 

“I discovered last year that is was a tough course, on which you need guts. And that’s what I like. The harder it is, the better I feel,” said the 2006 giant slalom Olympic champion. 

“The way I’m skiing at the moment I had a feeling I would not leave Garmsich empty-handed,” she added.