France's Karine Ruby, the current leader of the Giant Slalom World Cup standings, was the number one contender for the women's Giant Slalom title here today and she didn't disappoint, taking the gold medal, her second since 1996.
Having arrived at Madonna only yesterday, Ruby had not been able to spend much time on the course and even got a little lost on her way up. Wearing bib #14, Ruby had quite a late start but took the lead ahead of Sondra van Ert and Rosey Fletcher. Margherita Parini of Italy, one of Ruby's strongest rivals in GS, dropped out after a crash.
Overwhelmed, Ruby said, "I have not managed to get a title in any alpine race at the World Championships for such a long time so it feels just great. I was not sure about my skills in GS since we only had one after Christmas. That's why I decided to get here late and do some practice instead. When I was out training last weekend it worked pretty well and I felt more confident for today's race. I am so happy that all the hard work paid off. "
Similar to the men's race yesterday, the top 15 women from the first run had a reversed start order today in the second run.
When Ruby got out of the start gate in 15th position, her teammate Isabelle Blanc was holding the lead after an amazing run. Though fog covered the upper part of the course, when Ruby got to the first split time she had the lead by 45 hundredths of a second which she increased to 51 hundredths by the intermediate mark. And by the finish it was a hair's breadth fight for first place, but by just 24 hundredths of a second Blanc lost it to the Nagano Olympic gold medalist.
"She had such a great season and her first run was amazing so she deserves taking it," Blanc, who has been beaten by Ruby more than once, said. And she was happy with 2nd, saying "although it was close but it is just great that I managed to get two good runs down. This is very motivating for the races to come here." The reigning Parallel Giant Slalom World Champion will try to defend her title tomorrow.
Dagmar Mair unter der Eggen from Italy has not made it to the podium in any World Cup competition for the past two years but claimed 3rd place today. "I can't even remember when it happened last time," she said, "but it is great to have this experience again, especially because it happened in my country. The second run today was probably my best for ages but I really liked the slope, which was not too steep, just a perfect one for GS."
Check back for the head-to-head duels in the men's and women's Parallel Giant Slalom tomorrow.
— Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent
