Huetter wins super-G to end World Cup drought for Austrian women. Fest airlifted to hospital
ALTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, Austria (AP) — Cornelia Huetter gave Austria its first win of the season on the women's World Cup circuit with a narrow super-G victory on home snow Friday.
The normally powerful Austrian women have struggled this campaign but Huetter finally delivered a victory in the 17th race after previously getting the team's only runner-up finish, also in a super-G.
She became the first Austrian woman in more than 17 years to win a World Cup super-G at home, after Renate Götschl at Reiteralm in December 2006.
Huetter's perfect skiing through the final section helped her beat runner-up Kajsa Vickhoff Lie by 0.09 seconds. Lara Gut-Behrami was third, trailing Huetter by 0.21.
The race was briefly interrupted after Nadine Fest, the Austrian former world junior champion in super-G, crashed hard and needed to be airlifted from the course by helicopter. Austrian news agency APA reported that Fest had not broken any bones but would remain in the hospital overnight as a precaution with a shoulder injury.
American star Mikaela Shiffrin is skipping the three speed races at Altenmarkt this weekend. Shiffrin, who leads the overall World Cup standings and took silver in super-G at the world championships last season, said on social media she wants to recover fully from a cold and train for an intense race schedule through January, including a slalom Tuesday under floodlights at Flachau, Austria.
Shiffrin’s lead atop the overall standings was cut to 182 points by Federica Brignone, who finished fourth, 0.32 behind Huetter.
Huetter’s three closest challengers all had a faster intermediate time approaching the final section then lost at least 0.33 to the Austrian winner, whose speed topped 105 kph (65 mph).
The 31-year-old Huetter's fifth career World Cup win was her fourth in super-G — which requires skiers to improvise more than in downhill — and came nearly eight years after her first.
“It’s hard to find words because my emotions are really weird. I had a lot of thoughts and emotions,” said Huetter, who now leads the season-long super-G standings.
Austria's previous best result in a women's race this season was Huetter's second place in a super-G last month at St. Moritz, Switzerland.
The winner at St. Moritz, Sofia Goggia, crashed Friday after never looking entirely at ease. She quickly got up and skied down to the finish.
Goggia is a likely favorite for the downhill Saturday at what is now a three-race meeting at Altenmarkt. Friday’s race replaced a second super-G at St. Moritz that was canceled because of the weather.
The race was run on a sunny and still day at the Austrian resort with the temperature at minus-5 C (23 F).
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