Weirather claims shock Garmisch downhill victory
Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) (AFP) - Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather claimed only her fourth World Cup win in Saturday's downhill at Garmisch as Tina Maze and Anna Fenninger maintained their tight battle for the overall women's title.
The 25-year-old Weirather clocked 1min 40.94sec down the 3km-long Kandahar course with Austria's Fenninger second at 0.51sec and Slovenia's Maze third (+0.91sec).
It was Weirather's first downhill World Cup win after previous victories in the super-G, twice, and the giant slalom in an injury-hit career which saw her miss both the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics.
"There are about 200 fans for me here, which is really nice, but made me a bit nervous, so I'm really happy with how it went," said Weirather.
"I've had a soft spot for Garmisch since I first raced the course after injury which forced me to miss the 2011 world championships here."
The result keeps Maze on course to claim a second overall World Cup title ahead of the last races of the season at Are, Sweden, next weekend and season finale in Meribel, France, but Fenninger is just 24 points behind.
"There is a lot of tension, which you can take as a positive thing. It's better than if I had no chance at all," said Fenninger, who won the super-G and giant slalom world titles last month in Vail/Beaver Creek, USA.
Maze acknowledged the fight would go down to the wire.
"Anna is skiing really well, I will have to give my all," said Maze, the reigning world downhill champion.
Under crystal-clear blue skies in the German Alps, Weirather, the fastest in training, enjoyed another great run on the Garmisch course to back up her super-G victory from two years ago, as she attacked Maze's earlier time.
USA ski queen Lindsey Vonn, the downhill winner here in 2009, 2010 and 2012, had a disappointing run by her own standards finishing back in seventh but stays top of the downhill rankings with a 35-point lead over Fenninger and 96 ahead of Maze.
Austria's Elisabeth Goergl, who won 2011 downhill and super-G gold when the world championships were held in Garmisch four years ago, finished nearly two seconds off Weirather's time in tenth spot.
