Music: {allcanada} GUT BEATS OVERALL CHAMPION VONN TO WIN WOMEN'S SUPER-G RACE

Sunday, January 9, 2011

{allcanada} GUT BEATS OVERALL CHAMPION VONN TO WIN WOMEN'S SUPER-G RACE

ALTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, Austria -- Lara Gut shrugged off recent off-course troubles to win a women's World Cup super-G race on Sunday for her second career victory.

The 19-year-old Swiss had a near-flawless run on the demanding Kaelberloch course to finish in one minute 12.82 seconds and beat defending overall champion Lindsey Vonn in second by 0.53 seconds.

"It's an incredible feeling," said Gut, who took her maiden win in a super-G in St. Moritz, Switzerland in Dec. 2008.

Gut's teammate Dominique Gisin was 0.72 seconds behind in third. Britt Janyk of Whistler, B.C., was the top Canadian in ninth place.

World Cup leader Maria Riesch took sixth and remained on top of the standings with 923 points. Vonn, who won Saturday's downhill here, is second with 827.

Gut missed the entire Olympic season because of a dislocated hip. This season, she made headlines for a quarrel with the Swiss ski federation, which suspended her for two races for publicly criticizing a coach and ignoring warnings to comply with guidelines on wearing official team clothes.

"I've put that whole story behind me now," Gut said. "That's the past and it's useless to think about it any longer."

Gut said the victory would help continue building her confidence after being sidelined last season.

"After the last two years, this is really good for me," Gut said. "I love this course as I won my first junior world championship medal here."

Gut, who started 24th after all the favourites had already gone, led Vonn's time throughout her run and built almost too much speed on the course.

"I had to brake a little to make a double gate toward the end," Gut said. "I had time to watch all the others. I saw where they made mistakes so I knew where to be careful. It was not perfect, but I went out attacking and had just a few errors."

Vonn was disappointed to see her leading time beaten by the Swiss teenager, but said she was not surprised by Gut's performance.

"I knew she was going to have a good run and thought my time wasn't good enough to hold up," said Vonn, who won the only previous super-G this season in December at Lake Louise.

It was a season-best result for Janyk, who last cracked the top 10 a year ago with a 10th-place finish at a downhill in Austria.

"It was a tight race and I'm definitely going in the right direction as I am now counting the hundredths of seconds and not the seconds between me and the leader," she said.

Vonn lost speed as she almost fell in a right turn and had both hands in the snow to avoid crashing.

"I am happy with second," she said. "I made a couple of mistakes today and almost fell on the bottom. I just caught some soft snow and almost went on my hip. Thankfully I finished the race."

Despite missing out on back-to-back wins, racking up 180 points in two days left Vonn satisfied.

"Definitely (finishing) first and second is a great weekend, I am really happy with that," she said.

Gisin was also pleased with her third-place finish but acknowledged she could have done better.

"If you're fast, you make mistakes," she said. "I took risks on purpose, it's the only way to be really fast here."

Gisin praised the spirit in her team after the Swiss 1-3 finish, saying that "it makes (it) fun to be part of it. We all push each other to do better and go faster."

Two years ago, Gisin shared victory here with Sweden's Anja Paerson, who this time skied out in the difficult middle section of the course where many racers had problems.

Austria's Anna Fenninger, who was third in Saturday's downhill, crashed out, as did teammate and Olympic champion Andrea Fischbacher.

Former overall champion Nicole Hosp, who started 31st, came close to a stunning victory as she posted the fastest intermediate times but lost her line at the bottom part to finish fifth.

The women's circuit continues in nearby Flachau with a night slalom event on Tuesday.