Guay steals super g trophy with race win
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (dpa) - Eric Guay of Canada won the last super-g race of the alpine ski season on Thursday and captured the discipline World Cup trophy with it.
Guay won the race in heavy snowfall in 1 minute 26.36 seconds from Croatia′s Ivica Kostelic (1:26.75) and Norway′s Aksel Lund Svindal (1:29.99).
And when Austrian Michael Walchhofer managed no better than 15th Guay stole the discipline title from third place ahead of the race. Guay topped the final standings with 331 points ahead of Walchhofer (316) and Svindal (314).
"I didn′t know it would happen. I was so far back," said Guay, who won the last two super-g races for the trophy. "I had a great run."
The overall World Cup race swung slightly back in the favour of Austrian Benjamin Raich heading into the final two races, a giant slalom Friday and slalom Saturday.
Swiss Carlo Janka retained the lead with 1,097 points but with an 11th place finish got less points than Raich, who moved to 1,059 points after finishing sixth on the day.
Both are considered equally strong in the giant slalom even though Janka is the world and Olympic champion. Raich is the better slalom skier.
"I am very satisfied. It is wide open," said Raich.
Scheduled for later Thursday was the women′s giant slalom. World Cup leader Lindsey Vonn of the US crashed out in the first run which could allow German rival Maria Riesch to draw closer. dpa jb adh