Men's Downhill
Austria's Josef Strobl celebrated the greatest success of his career, winning the Lauberhorhn downhill in Wengen today, ahead of his teammate Hermann Maier, the skier to beat in this sixth downhill of the season.

	Josef Strobl

One week after his great win in Chamonix, Maier missed his seventh victory of the season by only 16/100 of a second. Both skiers finished way ahead of their rivals. Canada's Ed Podivinsky, who achieved a great comeback after placing 20th in Chamonix, was 3rd at 1.39 seconds and Italy's Kristian Ghedina, who's been fighting the flu since last Tuesday, was again 4th in front of another Austrian, Fritz Strobl, who had a bad crash near the finish line during training on Friday.

Other Austrian favorites, such as Stephan Eberharter or Andreas Schifferer (also fighting an illness) had a worse day, coming in 7th and 15th, respectively. American Daron Rahlves was not able to repeat his strong training runs and finished at a far 22nd place at four seconds from the winner. He was the only US skier to score points today as Jakub Fiala and Chris Puckett came in 35th and 39th.

Josef Strobl was delighted to come back on the top after a disappointing season start in downhill. He was only 5th last week in Chamonix after having clocked the fastest time in the upper part of the treacherous French course. He was looking for revenge in Wengen after having set some fast training times.

"Today I skied almost perfectly in the final turns after some very aggressive skiing in the upper part," said the 25-year-old Tyrolian. "It was a good idea — I saw that I had clocked the same second intermediate time as Hermann but I took more risks at the end."

"It was about time for me to win a downhill again," added the winner who has not won a speed event since his success at the finals in Crans-Montana in March 1998. "I felt in great shape after the Christmas break but I needed some luck to achieve my potential. I was very frustrated to be 5th in Chamonix after a great upper part and I was fighting for much more today.

"Here things went perfectly and I'm quite excited to have won such a prestigious Classic. I was twice 6th here in 1995. After the last training run, I was quite confident. Before falling asleep, I was thinking about the superb line used in training by Stephan Eberharter in the final icy "S" and I decided to follow it also on race day. It was a great idea, I guess," Strobl concluded.

Like many of his teammates, Strobl slept in the corridor outside his room because there was a noisy party going on outside his hotel. He took the mattress of his bed with him and had no problem sleeping.

"Today I skied almost perfectly in the final turns after some very aggressive skiing in the upper part... I saw that I had clocked the same second intermediate time as Hermann but I took more risks at the end..." — Josef Strobl (AUT)

Today marks the second time that Hermann Maier came 2nd in a downhill this season after having lost to Hannes Trinkl in Lake Louise in December. But he was not too upset since he finished ahead of his main rival in the downhill standings, Kristian Ghedina.

"I had a good run and I skied faster than Friday but I didn't take enough risks in some tricky turns," he explained. "Apparently Josef hit it perfectly today. I didn't attack enough in the final tough part while Josef skied all the time very aggressively.

"A top-3 finish is fine but I always aim to win the races in which I compete. At least I feel healthy and very motivated before the difficult coming weekend in Kitzbuhel, where I have to compete in three races. I have trained some super G earlier this week because I would enjoy to win once on the "Streif." I don't know about the downhill there but my super G skiing is fine."

Ed Podivinsky who achieved his best result ever in Wengen where he was 9th in 1998, was proud and delighted with his performance. It's the best Canadian result in this downhill since the 3rd place finish of Steve Podborski in 1981. "I felt something really special when I was on the podium next to Strobl and Maier - it means something for me to finish among the top-3 in the middle of all those great specialists, including Kristian Ghedina who was 4th," he said after the race.

"I'm having a strong season so far and I'm very happy after my far 20th place in Chamonix. This is a great boost for my morale before moving to Austria. Kitzbuhel is the summit of the season for the downhillers and it's important for me to know that I can compete at the level of these incredibly strong Austrians. It's the strongest ski team of the recent history of our sport and I'm pleased to have done so well today."

	Maier

"We still have some very exciting races ahead and I'm looking forward to having some good results on the difficult courses which are coming now. I'm so glad to have decided to keep on skiing after my crash at Val Gardena a year ago. All the hard work I have done to come back pays off now."

Some skiers, especially Peter Rzehak who crashed badly in the upper part of the course, have left Wengen with bad memories. He injured knee ligaments and he will have a hard time coming back. He has already survived several tough knee injuries in the past. Last year he was 2nd in Kitzbuhel behind his teammate Hans Knauss.

In Sunday's slalom, a new battle will face off the traditional specialists using medium-short skis and their rivals who have chosen the very short models. Italy's Angelo Weiss will try to repeat his great race from Chamonix against top favorites such as Thomas Stangassinger, Didier Plaschy or Finn Christian Jagge. Benjamin Raich is not sure to be able to compete. Like so many other skiers, he was suffering from a strong attack of the flu earlier this week.

— Manuéle Joyce, MountainZone.com World Cup Correspondent