Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany – Newly crowned FIS Alpine World Ski Championships super G silver medalist Julia Mancuso, of Squaw Valley, Calif., finished seventh in super combined Friday. Austria continued to own the top of the women’s podium as 21-year-old Anna Fenninger earned her first World Championship medal with gold.nFenninger crossed the finish line in a combined time of 2:43.23, a mere 0.09 seconds ahead of Tina Maze of Slovenia. Sweden’s Anja Paerson earned the bronze medal.
“It’s really soft and definitely hard to get a lot of purchase – it’s like spring snow,” Mancuso said of Friday’s super G course. “I definitely needed to charge harder in the slalom and was a little conservative. I think I was a little nervous at the start because the course set was really turny.”
Mancuso’s U.S. teammate Laurenne Ross, of Klamath Falls, Ore., was sixth in the downhill, yet finished 28th overall after hiking to make a gate in slalom.
“This slalom is not a joke. All other super combined races are run on the bottom of the downhill course, so their typically pretty flat and fairly easy,” said Ross. “Normally you get maybe six gates on a steep hill, but this was just steep the whole way down.”
Friday was another disappointing day for the Canadian women, as the country’s only starter in Friday’s super combined, Marie-Michèle Gagnon, of Lac-Etchemin, Quebec, was 25th in the downhill before failing to finish her slalom run.
“I’ve been skiing for more than 10 straight days and I really didn’t have anything left in my legs,” said a visibly exhausted and disappointed Gagnon. “My legs were burning in the start gate. I tried to do everything I could yesterday in physio and in recovery to get better but it didn’t really work.”
The only other Canadian to race Friday, Britt Janyk, skied the downhill portion only as a last-minute decision to train for the weekend’s downhill medal event.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2011 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany – February 11, 2011
Super Combined
1. Anna Fenninger, Austria, 2:43.23
2. Tina Maze, Slovenia, 2:43.32
3. Anja Paerson, Sweden, 2:43.50