Mahre twin beaten in giant slalom

Press, 10 August 1979, Page 24

Mahre twin beaten in giant slalom

By

TIM DUNBAR

Pete Patterson (United States) showed by winning the Australian international giant slalom at Mount Hutt yesterday that he obviously intends to push his teammates, the Mahre twins, a little more in the next World Cup. The Europa F.I.S. series was restarting after six days break because the first part of the Australian series had been cancelled and handed over to New’ Zealand. A w'omen’s giant slalom was also run and this gave Tamara McKinney, the youngest member of the United States A team, the chance for her second victory of the series. The flying 16-year-old had already won the Radio Avon women’s slalom two weeks before.

Patterson, aged 22, had only one of the twins, Steve Mahre, to contend with in the giant slalom and he fought, off that challenge with two fine attacking runs of 79.66 s and 72.10 s to finish 1.25 s clear. The other Mahre, Phil, will not start in today’s Australian international slalom either because he still has a plate in the ankle he broke several months ago at Lake Placid, New York, the venue for the Winter Olympics next February. Mahre was ranked second behind the Swede, Ingemar Stenmark, in slalom and third over all on the last World Cup circuit. He helped with the setting of the course yesterday. The first time posted for Steve Mahre after the second giant slalom run led him to believe that he had beaten Patterson but the final provisional times showed he was in arrears on both runs — by 0.13 s and 1.12 s respectively. He said that he didn’t “ski the steep well” on the first run. “I was a little more aggressive for the whole way on the second course with a little more snap and it seemed to pay off. The second course was set a lot straighter and was really fast in places,” said the 22-year-old American. The next five places were also filled by Americans with a particularly impressive performance from the 19-

j year-old Mike Farny, a downhill specialist. Farny grabbed ! sixth place, 2.17 s behind the winner. Two Australians, Robbie Mclntyre and Kim Clifford, took eighth and ninth places respectively and the best New Zealander was Auckland’s Scott Kendall, aged 20, with eleventh place. He finished a reasonable 9s behind Patterson and another New Zealander, Stuart Blakely, was 9.92 s back for twelfth place in the field of 36. Blakely enjoyed ski-ing on the more open second course and was only 4.36 s behind the best time on that run. When the Mrs Pope's 'women’s giant slalom was contested last Friday the redheaded Viki Fleckenstein, aged 23, was a narrow winner from Heidi Preuss. This time Ms Fleckenstein was 2s back from her younger team-mate on both courses and Ms McKinney’s closest rival was the little Heidi Preuss. Ms McKinney prevailed by close margins of 0.25 s and 0.395. A number of racers in the field of 19 starters had trouble with the ruts on the bottom of the course but only three failed to finish. Julia Allison, who has a big lead in the Reizenstein’s Cup national circuit, was the first New Zealander by over a second from Anna Archibald and Fiona Johnson — and beat all the Australians as well. Her total time of 2min 48.03 s gave her a creditable fifth place, 11.44 s slower than McKinney’s aggregate. Women’s giant slalom.—T. McKinney (U.S.), 82.21. 74.38, 2:36.59. 1: H. Preuss (U.S ), 82.46 74.77, 2:37.23, 2; C. Cooper (U.S.) 83.91. 76.59. 2:40.50. 3; V. Heel kenstein (U.S.). 84.41. 76.57, 2:40.98 , 4; J. Allison (N.Z.), 87.71, 80.32, 2:48.03, 5; J. Altermatt (Aust.), 88.16, 30 51, 2:48.67, 6: A. Archibald (N.Z.), 88.09, 81.13 2:49.22. 7; F. Johnson (N.Z.), 88.571 80.70, 2:49.27, 8; M. Guss (Aust ), 89.86, 82.38. 2:52.34, 9; K. Van Der Lee (Aust.), 90.08, 84.73 2:54.81, 10. Men’s giant slalom—P. Patterson (U.S.), 79.66. 72.10, 2:31.76, 1; S. Mahre (U.S.), 79.79, 73.22, 2:33.01. 2; E. Wilson (U.S ), 80.35, 72.92, 2:33.27, 3; W. Taylor (U.S.), 80.85, 72.49, 2:33.34, 4; C. Adgate (U.S.), 2:33.83. 5; M. Farny (U.S.), 80.94, 72.99. 2:33 93, 6: W. Dorris (U.S.). 80.96, 73.00, 2:53.96, 7; K. Clifford (Aust.l. 82.65, 75.93, 2:37.76. 8; R. Mclntyre (Aust.). 82.66. 75.93. 2:38.59, 9: J. Read '(Canada), 84.81, 74.47. 2:39.28. 10: S. Kendall (N.Z.i. 83.62, 77.17. 2:40.79. 11; S. Blakely (N.Z.), 85.22. 76.46. 12.