Poutiainen grabs giant slalom title, Janne Ahonen finally confirms ski-jumping supremacy

Matti Hautamäki racks up fifth successive win, while Hannu Manninen breaks records

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Tanja Poutiainen added another feather to her already crowded cap at the weekend when she won the FIS giant slalom World Cup title for the 2004-2005 season, to go with the slalom title she had already wrapped up in January. Going into the final giant slalom competition in Lenzerheide in Switzerland, Poutiainen had trailed Sweden's Anja Pärson by 29 points.
      All manner of placings scenarios had been calculated beforehand to determine which of the two friends and rivals would take the crystal globe for the giant slalom season.
      As it happened, it was not even close, since Poutiainen, completely and quite deliberately unaware of how well Pärson had skied, produced a storming run to finish second behind Maria Jose Rienda Contreras of Spain - and then discovered that Pärson had stumbled badly on her second run and could finish no better than 17th.
      Since World Cup points were awarded in this final race for only the top 15 finishers (instead of the customary top 30), Poutiainen's 80 points took her comfortably into first place.
     
Sunday's giant slalom triumph rounded off a very special weekend indeed for the 24-year-old from Rovaniemi, as she also formally collected the globe for the slalom title on Saturday. In her final slalom race she finished 4th behind Sarah Schleper of the United States, who celebrated her first win on the World Cup circuit.
      Tanja Poutiainen is the first Finn ever to win a giant slalom World Cup trophy and also ther first to win two World Cup titles. Kalle Palander won the men's slalom World Cup in 2002-2003.
      Poutiainen has stamped herself as the most consistent performer in the technical disciplines this season, with three slalom victories and one in the giant slalom, together with a further six podium finishes.
      Had she participated in the giant slalom (where she picked up only a handful of points in her two experimental outings) and in the downhill (which she has not attempted), then she might have been a serious contender for the overall World Cup title. As it is, she finished a very creditable 5th.
     
Anja Pärson did not go away empty-handed from the weekend, either. Despite failing to score any points on Sunday, she just kept her head in front of Janica Kostelic, whose 8th-place finish in the giant slalom left her still three points adrift in 2nd spot overall.
      Pärson and Kostelic also cleaned up the season's individual World Championship gold medals between them. Poutiainen was 2nd in both the slalom and giant slalom at the World Championships in Bormio.
     
Over in Norway, at Lillehammer and at the traditional Holmenkollen Nordic skiing meet, three Finns stood out.
      The first cause for celebration came on Friday evening in Lillehammer, when Janne Ahonen finished 4th and so put himself beyond the reach of his only remaining rival for the World Cup title, Norway's Roar Ljøkelsøy.
      Ahonen began the season as though he was going to wrap matters up by Christmas, winning apparently at will. He chalked up 12 victories and a colossal lead, then suffered a severe bout of flu - including a cracked rib - that kept him out of competition for much of January. However, he recovered enough to take three medals at the World Championships, one of them the gold on the big hill.
      Despite being clearly below his best form right now, it was only a matter of time before Ahonen gathered the few remaining points to see him home in the World Cup. He was pleased, of course, but as a top sportsman he knows he is only as good as his last competition, and at present Ahonen is far from his best.
      Friday's competition was won by Matti Hautamäki, who thus marked up his fourth successive victory in an end-of-season charge that threatens to be as overwhelming as Ahonen's opening blast.
     
On Sunday, Hautamäki went one better and made it five in a row at Holmenkollen, and he therefore enjoyed a clean sweep in the four-hill Nordic Tournament, a "series-within-the-series" held in Finland and Norway.
      His late burst of excellent form as Ahonen's star has waned (Ahonen could do no better than 18th on Sunday) has meant that the winners' list for this season has an almost incredibly Finnish look to it: out of 26 competitions so far, these two Finnish jumpers have won seventeen between them.
      It is also worth noting that the two remaining competitions are on the massive ski-flying hill at Planica, and that Hautamäki holds the world record for the longest-ever jump with an upright landing: 231 metres, and the location was Planica in 2003. In his current shape, not many would bet against him extending his winning streak.
     
Sunday's other Finnish victor was Hannu Manninen, who had already sewn up his Nordic Combined World Cup title some weeks ago. But by winning the final "Hurricane sprint" event he set a new all-time record of ten victories in the season.
      Manninen was lying in 11th place after the jumping, but made up the 300 metres on the leader and hit the front after 4km of the 7.5-kilometre ski circuit.
      Hannu Manninen's consistency in World Cup races has been quite astonishing: 10 wins, 4 2nd-place finishes and 2 3rd-place finishes out of 17 starts.
      The only blemish on an otherwise near-perfect season was his failure to deliver at the World Championships in Oberstdorf. He came away without a medal of any colour, and will now have an even greater appetite for individual success at next year's Winter Olympics in Torino.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Matti Hautamäki makes it three in succession in Kuopio (10.3.2005)
  Hannu Manninen wraps up World Cup title in Lahti (7.3.2005)
  Weekend Sports Round-Up: Poutiainen adds second silver medal (14.2.2005)
  Tanja Poutiainen delighted at silver medal from FIS World Championships (9.2.2005)
  Tanja Poutiainen makes Finnish slalom history (24.1.2005)

Links:
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