Women's Giant Slalom
Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister celebrated her third success of the season in a giant slalom as she won the first race of the new year held in Slovenia's Maribor.

After two aggressive runs, the 26-year-old ex-downhiller beat Switzerland's Sonja Nef by 76/100 and by 1.60 her teammate Anita Wachter, last year's winner. It's the third time Nef, the winner earlier this winter in Tignes, came in 2nd here since 1996!

	The Podium

This newest win allowed Michaela to reinforce her lead in the GS World Cup standings and to take over the command in the Overall Classifications ahead of Renate Goetschl, only 6th this time.

Birgit Heeb, from Liechtenstein, and Canada's Allison Forsyth, 3rd and 2nd, respectively, last week in Lienz, Austria, also finished among the top-5 - these five skiers are by far the strongest racers in this event this winter. France's Régine Cavagnoud, the winner in Copper Mountain, only came in 25th after the first run. She had clocked the 8th fastest time in the morning.

"This success means a lot for me. It's great to be the first winner of the new year..." — Michaela Dorfmeister (AUT)

Quite slow in this first race of the new year were Americans Kristina Koznick and Sarah Schleper, 28th and 29th at the end. Dorfmeister was quite emotional after her success. She didn't kiss the snow this time as she did it in Val d'Isère last December, but it was obvious that she was thrilled after fighting hard for this after her disappointing finish last week in Lienz. She was not pleased at all there with her 13th place.

	Dorfmeister

"I had problems in Lienz with the soft snow but here everything went fine for me," she explained. "The course was hard enough to let me ski with my usual aggressiveness. I like it when I can ski fast and take risks. I felt very confident and I really enjoyed pushing myself at the limits at the end of both runs," Dorfmeister said. "This success means a lot for me. It's great to be the first winner of the new year. I don't think too much about the World Cup standings for the moment. The season is still long. It's more important for me to improve my form in the speed events and to remain consistent throughout the winter."

Italy's Isolde Kostner, who skied out here in the first run, will need to score great results in future speed events to have a serious chance to clinch this year's Overall World Cup trophy. Both Dorfmeister and Goetschl seem as thpugh they'll be able to improve their levels in the coming downhill and Super-G races.

In the slalom on Thursday, Renate will try to at least finish the second run. In both Sestriere and Lienz she crashed out while fighting for a place on the podium, thus twice losing precious points. She also skied out in a downhill in Lake Louise and in a GS at Val d'Isère after setting fast intermediate times. With more luck, the reigning downhill World Champion would be much further ahead in the Overall Standings.

On the rather flat terrain of the Pohorje slope, Renate has a strong chance to finally get on the podium. Among her main rivals are the best Slovenian racers, such as Spela Pretnar, winner in Copper Mountain; Natasa Bokal, 2nd in Lienz; Urska Hrovat, a winner here in 1994; Pernilla Wiberg, the two-time slalom winner here; Anja Paerson, still mad to have skied out in the second run in Lienz; Christel Saioni, from France; and, Trine Bakke from Norway, also very consistent since the season's start.

Koznick can hopefully also regain part of her momentum before the next race. In the first run at Lienz, she proved she is no longer so far from the best specialists.

— Patrick Lang, MountainZone.com World Cup Correspondent