Poutiainen delights in overwhelming World Cup giant slalom win in Cortina

Last competition before Vancouver could hardly have gone better

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Alpine skier Tanja Poutiainen’s last race before the Vancouver Olympics was a tour de force and laid down a very strong marker to her rivals. The 29-year-old native of Rovaniemi took an overwhelming victory in the FIS World Cup giant slalom event in Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy.
      “I’m over the moon”, Poutiainen said when interviewed over the telephone. “The timing could not be better.”
      The first run was a thriller. Poutiainen was the first down the slope. The Finn produced a balanced effort which ultimately earned her the number two spot with only 0.02 seconds separating her from the leader Kathrin Zettel of Austria. Germany’s promising 20-year-old Victoria Regensberg lurked 0.04 seconds behind Poutiainen after the first run.
     
The second leg turned into a Poutiainen spectacle. The Finn increased her lead over Regensburg to a gaping 1.05 seconds. Zettel, in turn, tried too hard, got caught on a gate and failed to finish her second effort. In the end Kathrin Hölzl of Germany came home in third.
      The win was Poutiainen’s first in Cortina, her second in the giant slalom this season, and a career tenth victory in the World Cup.
     
In December Poutiainen injured her back and was forced to have a couple of weeks’ break from the sport.
      “The return was not as easy as I had expected. However, in training I was able to produce somewhat decent efforts the whole time, so I was not overly worried at any stage”, Poutiainen explained.
      In the giant slalom World Cup rankings, Poutiainen is currently in fourth position for the season to date. In the overall World Cup she climbed into seventh place.
      “In the Olympics my objective is a gold medal. If I come home with two, so much the better. In Vancouver one doesn’t get anything for free. For the top skiers only a medal means something”, said Poutiainen, who will also be going in the slalom event, where she is currently in 8th in World Cup standings.
     
Another Finn Sanni Leinonen finished 22nd, nearly eight seconds behind Poutiainen.
      She was one of the last down the hill on her first run, but managed to produce the 28th fastest time, and parlayed this into a better finish as a number of the fancied competitors failed to negotiate the course. This was the first time this season Leinonen had scored World Cup points in this discipline.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Tanja Poutiainen on the podium in Levi, but Finnish men eclipsed on the slopes (16.11.2009)

Links:
  Tanja Poutiainen website
  FIS pages
  Tanja Poutainen (Wikipedia)

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