Nierlich gives Austria a golden send-off

Press, 15 February 1989, Page 37

Nierlich gives Austria a golden send-off

NZPA-Reuter Vail, Colorado

Rudolf Nierlich outshone established stars to achieve the only golden double of the Alpine Ski-ing World Championships and hoist Austria level with arch-rival Switzerland on the final victory list. The 22-year-old Austrian, whose first World Cup win came little more than a year ago, seized the giant slalom and slalom titles to match the double achieved in the 1988 Olympics by Italian Alberto Tomba whose fortunes waned on the slippery slopes of Vail. The Swiss duo, Maria Walliser and Vreni Schneider, retained two titles they won at the last championships in Crans-Montana and Martin Hangl succeeded compatriot Pirmin Zurbriggen as supergiant slalom champion. But the Swiss could not reproduce the overwhelming domination they enjoyed on home snow in 1987. Nierlich’s double after an Austrian one-two in the women’s super-G by Ulrike Maier and Sigrid Wolf left the Swiss-Austrian duel for gold tied at 3-3 when the 15-day championships closed on Sunday. Austria had not won a world championship title since Harti Weirather took the downhill in 1982. The Swiss were again overall medal winners with 11

podium appearances to six for the Austrians, but the title spread was much more egalitarian than last time when only two of the 10 gold medals escaped Swiss clutches.

The biggest surprise was the downhill victory of the unsung West German Hansjoerg Tauscher, who had never been higher than fifth in a World Cup downhill. His day of inspiration on the Beaver Creek track consigned the big Swiss guns to rungs two to five.

Peter Mueller, twice Olympic downhill silver medallist, lost his title but finished second to claim the unprecedented feat of a downhill medal in five successive major championships. Tomba had a wretched time. His best finish was sixth in the super-G, and in his two Olympic gold medal disciplines he was seventh in the giant slalom and one of the first run casualties in the slalom.

• In one of his best performances among the elite of international ski-ing, New Zealand’s Simon Wi Rutene was placed twenty-seventh in the men’s giant slalom at the world championships.

The national champion completed two runs down the course with a vertical drop of 372 metres for a combined

time of 2min 46.855. His time was within nine seconds of the winner, Nierlich, of Austria.

Chris Mosaed, of Raetihi, the other New Zealander competing, did not finish the first leg of the race. A measure of Wi Rutene’s creditable effort was that the highly regarded Australian siracer, Steven Lee, was nearly 7s slower and 10 places further down the finish list. Lee has previously won a World Cup super-G and was placed a worthy eighth in that discipline at this world championships in Vail.

The men’s slalom has since been raced at Vail on a very long, demanding course and only 23 skiers in a field of 98 starters finished both runs. Wi Rutene and Mosaed were among the skiers to be eliminated on the first run. Nierlich won the race, completing a giant slalom-slalom double.

Meanwhile, it seems that an NZPA-Reuter report last week missed the name of Canterbury’s Juliet Johnston from its list of finishers in the women’s super-G. Johnston was actually placed fortyfirst, one place ahead of Annelise Coberger and six places behind another New Zealand team-mate, Janey Blair.