Kathrin Zettel

Kathrin Zettel led a 1-2 Austrian finish in a World Cup giant slalom Friday, while Lindsey Vonn moved within one race of capturing her second overall title. Zettel remained the World Cup leader in the giant slalom with her fourth victory in the discipline this season. Teammate Elisabeth Goergl trailed by 0.12 seconds. Zettel increased her lead over Tanja Poutiainen of Finland, who finished third. Vonn had a smooth run to finish eighth. Nearest overall rival Maria Riesch of Germany was a distant 22nd, making Vonn likely to clinch her second straight overall title. With five races remaining — and 500 points at stake ... Read Full Story

OFTERSCHWANG, Germany, March 7 (Reuters) - American Lindsey Vonn crashed as she was going for her second World Cup title in a slalom on Saturday won by France's Sandrine Aubert. Vonn, who had clocked the fastest time in the morning leg, only needed to finish in front of Germany's Maria Riesch to retain her overall World Cup crystal globe. But the American, winner of seven World Cup races and two world titles this season, slid out of contention close to the finish line and must wait for the next race to be crowned. Aubert gave the French their first victory in a World Cup ... Read Full Story

Tina Maze of Slovenia took advantage of an early start to lead a women's World Cup giant slalom after the first heat Friday. Maze, a silver medalist at last month's world championships, was the first skier out of the gate and covered the 53-gate Horn course in 1 minute, 19.18 seconds. She had a comfortable advantage for the second run over Kathrin Zettel of Austria, the World Cup leader in the giant slalom, who clocked 1:19.56. Manuela Moelgg of Italy was third in 1:19.80. Tanja Poutiainen of Finland, who trails Zettel by one point in the giant slalom standings, was fifth at 1:20.09. Overall ... Read Full Story

American Lindsey Vonn secured the women's World Cup downhill title for the second year running on Saturday despite a modest 12th place finish in the Bansko downhill behind Austrian winner Andrea Fischbacher. Super-G specialist Fischbacher clocked a winning time of 1min 45.81sec to claim her maiden downhill victory, and her second overall from the series following a super-G win in February 2008. Slovenia's Tina Maze and Fabienne Suter, the Swiss who claimed her maiden downhill win here on Friday, finished 0.26sec and 0.39 behind respectively in second and third place. After the ninth place finish of her closest downhill rival, Switzerland's Dominique Gisin, Vonn ... Read Full Story

Germany's Maria Riesch won the women's World Cup super-combined event here on Friday to add to her slalom title at last week's world championships. "I have a really special feeling for Tarviso, where I won a gold medal at the junior world championships in 2002," Riesch said. "I did a good downhill and a really good slalom. It will be difficult tomorrow (Saturday) to make the podium again in the downhill, but I'll give it everything." Riesch, who timed two minutes 18.57sec, beat home Lindsey Vonn of the United States who had taken the honours in the morning's downhill, by 49 hundredths of a ... Read Full Story