Monday, December 22, 2014
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Vonn will have to wait until 2015 for record

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[December 22, 2014]  By Manuele Lang
 
 VAL D'ISERE, France (Reuters) - Lindsey Vonn will have to wait until the New Year for a record-equalling women’s World Cup victory after she crashed in a Super-G won by Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl on Sunday.

The race in Val d'Isere was the American's first chance of matching the record of 62 wins set by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell in 1980.

She had dominated Saturday’s downhill on the same course but on Sunday took a turn wide, crashed into a gate and was unable to complete her last race of 2014.

"Yesterday was a great day, but a very long day," she said. "I missed a little bit of elevation (today) and I wasn’t able to make the gate.

"The positive thing is that my knees are good and I’m still going home for Christmas with a big smile," added the American, who returned this month from a year out of action after two knee operations.

The four-times World Cup champion will return in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, on Jan. 10 and 11 while races scheduled for Semmering on Dec. 28 and 29 were moved to Innsbruck for lack of snow.

Former world champion Goergl mastered the tricky Val d'Isere course to clinch her seventh World Cup win in one minute and 25.42 seconds.

Super-G Olympic champion Anna Fenninger secured an Austrian one-two 0.05 seconds behind, while Slovenia’s Tina Maze was third, 0.13 off the pace.

"It was a tricky course and I kind of like it when it’s tricky," said Goergl, second to Vonn on Saturday. "I spent a long time for the inspection and then my coaches told me there were weird turns and what to do and it worked out fine."

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Second-placed Fenninger has been below par this winter but said she could celebrate Christmas on a high note: "Things didn’t work out as well as I would have wanted so far. I had to fight and it was really important to have a good result before the break."

The 2014 overall World Cup winner currently trails Maze by 249 points.

Austria’s Marcel Hirscher won the men’s giant slalom in Alta Badia for the second successive season, beating world and Olympic champion Ted Ligety by a huge 1.45 seconds. France’s Thomas Fanara was third, 0.03 adrift.

(Editing by Alan Baldwin)

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