Poutiainen takes giant slalom bronze at World Championships

Tanja Poutiainen's pre-race forecast turned out to be close to the truth in the giant slalom at the FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships in Val d'Isere.
      She had predicted that the competition would be a real struggle, and that is exactly how it proved, with Poutiainen being the third-best at getting down the Bellevarde slope twice.
      She finished just over half a second behind the surprise winner Kathrin Hölzl of Germany and 0.45 seconds behind Slovenia's Tina Maze, but admitted that even taking a medal was touch and go in very difficult circumstances.
     
Poutiainen was in 2nd place after the first run, headed by Austrian Kathrin Zettel. These two were the only skiers to break one minute on the course.
      Lying third at halfway was another surprise name, Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany, and Hölzl - still looking for her first win on the World Cup circuit - was in fourth.
      It all looked very promising, but on the second time down the hill, Poutiainen started to make mistakes at halfway, and lost her rhythm, not least because of the poor light.
      It was hard for all the competitors to make out the contours of the slope, and to some extent the result was more about who made fewer mistakes.
     
Some idea of Poutiainen's problems can be had from her split-times.
      At the first point she was 3rd fastest, and was actually leading the race overall at that stage, but by the second split-time she had slumped to 21st fastest for the second run and 6th overall, and by the finish line she produced the 14th-best second run of the day.
      Her combined time over the two descents was just good enough for third place, a tenth of a second ahead of the 2007 bronze medallist Denise Karbon of Italy, but Zettel was still to come, with a 0.40 seconds advantage, and so a medal for the Finn was by no means secure.
     
As it happened, the Austrian got into in even more trouble on the hill, and slipped down to sixth place overall. Rebensburg, too, had a catastrophic time of it and dropped to 9th.
      The one skier who seemed to relish the failing light and falling snow was Tina Maze, who rocketed up the field from 16th, and produced a time that was the best part of a second faster than anyone else could manage. She was only narrowly overtaken by Hölzl, who was herself a model of consistency (4th and 6th).
     
Hölzl had admittedly previously shown some flashes of form in this event. She finished 3rd in the World Cup giant slalom in Maribor in January, when - interestingly enough - the top four names were all the same as in Val d'Isere, with Maze coming out on top and Karbon in the runner-up spot.
      Nevertheless, the German's victory was something of a shock; she is currently only in 13th place in the World Cup standings.
      Poutiainen, meanwhile, is 2nd, just one point behind Kathrin Zettel, and Maze is in 3rd.
     
Tanja Poutiainen's medal is her fourth at the top level, and Finland's fifth in all (Kalle Palander famously won gold in the men's slalom at the World Championships in Vail in 1999).
      This latest bronze goes with a silver in the giant slalom at Sestrière in the 2006 Olympics, and two more silver medals, in the slalom and giant slalom, at the 2005 World Championships in Santa Caterina.
      At the last Worlds in Åre, Sweden, Poutiainen missed out altogether, finishing down in a disappointing 14th place in both events, but the 28-year-old from Rovaniemi has otherwise been a very consistent performer ever since she joined the World Cup circuit in 1997.
      She has won eight races and appeared on the podium no fewer than 33 times.
     
Tanja will have a chance to add to her haul on Saturday, when she goes in the women's slalom.
      Since she is currently fourth in the slalom World Cup standings, she will be among the favourites to be there or thereabouts at the finish, along with Maria Riesch of Germany, Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic, Zettel, and Anja Pärson of Sweden, the winner of four medals in Åre two years ago.
      One other serious threat will come from Lindsey Vonn of the United States, who has already won two gold medals at these games. However, Vonn - normally strongest in the speed disciplines, but with some very good slalom performances this season that have put her at the top of the overall World Cup standings - has levelled the playing-field somewhat.
      She injured her thumb on a broken champagne bottle when celebrating her downhill victory earlier this week, and was forced to miss the giant slalom. She will ski on Saturday with her right hand strapped up.

More on this subject:
 Tanja Poutiainen adds a second bronze in World Championships slalom

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Poutiainen frets for a brief moment after finishing second in FIS Alpine World Cup opening in Austria (27.10.2008)
  Poutiainen takes giant slalom silver (24.2.2006, Olympics)
  Double silver medallist Tanja Poutiainen is also Finland´s biggest-earning female athlete (15.2.2005)

Links:
  Tanja Poutiainen (Wikipedia)
  Tanja Poutiainen on the FIS site
  FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
  Tanja Poutiainen official site