Tanja Poutiainen adds a second bronze in World Championships slalom

Sanni Leinonen finishes in 11th after promising start

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Tanja Poutiainen came from 9th place to grab a second bronze medal at the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Val d'Isere on Saturday, finishing behind Maria Riesch (Germany) and Zarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic in the women's slalom as several of the first-run favourites crashed out.
      The medal is her fifth at the highest level.
      Sanni Leinonen, 19, was in fact the fastest Finn on the first descent, but faded from a near-sensational 7th place to finish 11th overall.
     
Poutiainen's first run was perhaps overly cautious, and left her nearly a second off the pace set by Manuela Mölgg of Italy (55.00).
      Mölgg was closely followed by American Lindsey Vonn (55.24), with Zahrobska and Riesch in 4th and 6th places respectively.
      The Finnish No.1, who was skiing without any great pressure after taking a bronze medal in Thursday's giant slalom, then turned it on for her second descent.
      She just managed to squeak to the head of the field, a mere one-hundredth of a second ahead of Denise Karbon of Italy and four-hundreths in front of another Italian, Nicole Gius. Gius had a great run, pulling herself up from 15th spot.
     
Poutiainen's time held up until the arrival of Riesch, who went about her business like she meant it.
      The German fairly flew down the hill, and opened up a lead of more than a second (1:51.80 to Poutiainen's 1:52.89).
      When Zahrobska then also went past her to grab second place in 1:52.57, Poutiainen was left to bite her nails as the last three skiers waited to go.
     
Third-placed Sandrine Aubert of France made a great start and was leading at the first split-time, but then crashed out.
      Lindsey Vonn, skiing with a strapped right hand, also came a nasty cropper on the upper part of the slope, and finally the pressure proved too much for Manuela Mölgg, who missed a gate when the job was almost done and she was still heading the pack.
      These misfortunes and a solid second run, in which she was 5th-fastest of all the competitors, left a delighted Poutiainen in the bronze medal position, and poor Denise Karbon was again relegated to 4th spot, just as she had been in the giant slalom.
     
After the first run, the Finnish contingent had hopes of a double success, for 19-year-old Sanni Leinonen actually outdid her older rival, and finished in a dazzling 7th place, some 0.20 seconds ahead of Poutiainen.
      However, the youngster could not hold it together on her second attempt, and she slipped down to 11th, which was in any event a very creditable showing.
      The third Finnish entry Tii-Maria Romar finished 39th on her first run and did not make the second round.
     
More links are given under the earlier story of Poutiainen's giant slalom medal.
     

More on this subject:
 Poutiainen takes giant slalom bronze at World Championships

Links:
  FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships

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