Women's Downhill
Italy's Isolde "Isi" Kostner confirmed her strong form in this early part of the season and her position as the leading World Cup speed specialist by winning the downhill at St. Moritz.

	Isolde Kostner

Kostner slipped ahead of Germany's Regina Haeusl after a tough battle in the lower part of the treacherous Corviglia course. In 3rd, Slovenia's Spela Bracun achieved a surprising win and the best race of her career, beating Austrians Renate Goetschl and Michaela Dorfmeister, two of the best specialists from last winter.

America's Jonna Mendes, the first skier on course, reached a promising 12th place while Canada's Melanie Turgeon hoped for more than her 15th place after two strong training runs. Germany's Hilde Gerg, who took 2nd three times in the season's first speed events in Lake Louise and Val d'Isere, had to settle with 10th place. Sweden's Pernilla Wiberg placed low as well, at 16th. These two racers may soon loose their chances of clinching the current Overall World Cup, which Isolde Kostner and Renate Goetschl (AUT) are also fighting for.

"I'm very confident and I enjoyed skiing on this very difficult and technical course. I often have a lot of problems with courses that have many jumps and tight turns but today I was able to survive it pretty well..." — Isolde Kostner

The Italian has dominated the World Cup speed scene this season in Hermann Maier-like fashion, having won two downhills and a super G, while finishing 3rd in the Lake Louise super G. Despite some errors in the intermediate and finals parts of the course, Isi never stopped the fight.

"I'm very confident and I enjoyed skiing on this very difficult and technical course," said the super G World Champion of 1996 and 1997. "I often have a lot of problems with courses that have many jumps and tight turns but today I was able to survive it pretty well.

"In the first part, I skied as fast as I could but I made some mistakes in the bottom part where it's quite important to choose a good line," she added. "I'm really pleased by my season start, the best ever in my career. In the past, I never won races before the end of January. I was right to change my training last summer and to ask the Italian Federation to provide me with a personal trainer."

Thus far in World Cup history, no Italian woman has ever clinched the Overall World Cup standings.

	Bracun

Regina Haeusl (GER), winner of Italy's Cortina d'Ampezzo race in 1993, celebrated her 26th birthday by taking a superb 2nd place while her more established teammates struggled with the course. Martina Ertl lost over two seconds in the treacherous mid-course turns after clocking an excellent intermediate time. France's Régine Cavagnoud also blew her chances in that section, which she had mastered during training. She finished 28th and Ertl placed 22nd.

It's the fourth time this season that a German missed the first place by only a few hundredths of a second. In Canada and France, Hilde Gerg missed 1st place in extremely tight races.

Slovenia's Spela Bracun's 3rd place is one of the biggest surprises of the season, behind the success of her friend and teammate Mojca Suhadolc in a super G in Lake Louise last month.

"I'm quite surprised, I can't believe it," Bracun said after the race. "I started to doubt my future as a ski racer, but finally I have been paid for all the work I have done in the past years. I've been injured and had bad moments. I have seriously thought of quitting, but now it is all perfect."

The race was run without overall World Cup leader Janica Kostelic, who tore knee ligaments in a spectacular crash during a training run on this course yesterday. The 17-year-old Croatian fell on her back after coming off a jump and crashed into safety netting, knocking her out of action for the rest of the season.

Kostelic is still holding on to her advantage over Kostner in the Overall World Cup by one point, but that slim advantage is likely to disappear over the weekend with two more speed events planned in St. Moritz.

In the downhill on Saturday, Kostner will try to join the privileged group who have won two downhills in two days. In 1997, she won a downhill and a super G in two consecutive days in Cortina d'Ampezzo. "Mentally, I feel really well prepared for tomorrow, but I won't speak about the Overall standings until the end of January, after the races in Cortina ," she said. Kostner likes competing in Cortina. Prior to this season, she won four of her five career wins in the lovely Italian resort. But she doesn't mind the pressure to win again. "I'm not feeling it so far, I'm just enjoying having recovered all my momentum after two slow seasons."

— Manuèle Joyce, MountainZone.com Correspondent