Haver-Loeseth And Zenhaeusern Win In Stockholm

Hammarbybacken in Stockholm staged an exciting show today with the City Event. Nina Loeseth and Ramon Zenhäusern dealt with the intense rhythm the best and walk away with World Cup wins.

The top-12 World Cup starting list (WCSL) ranked slalom athletes and the top four ranked overall athletes create qualification spots for the city event. Nations may substitute any other skiers within the top 30 WCSL for slalom or the overall for a qualified competitor from their country. Given the proximity in timing to the Olympic Winter Games, some teams opted to replace qualified skiers with other top slalom racers following the official qualification on Sunday afternoon.

On the ladies’ side, tech specialist Nina Loeseth held on all the way through the eight heats, beating successively Katharina Truppe, Bernadette Schild, Frida Hansdotter and Wendy Holdener in the big final, to take her second career win. Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener took second place, two years after she won her first World Cup in the very same venue. In third palce, Petra Vhlova made the best out of her small final, winning against local Frida Hansdotter who took fourth place.

Ramon Zenhäusern used the momentum he built up in the last few races (4th in Wengen and 6th in Kitzbuehel) to ski to his maiden World Cup win. The two meter tall Swiss was able to use his tallness to his advantage and made his way into the big final beating successively Stefano Gross, Michael Matt, Linus Strasser and André Myhrer. The local hero André Myhrer, who won the last City Event in Oslo on New Year’s Eve and had four podiums in that discipline already, was very close to take another victory but couldn’t beat the “big man” of the day. In third place, last year’s winner Linus Strasser takes his third podium in as many participations in this discipline.

The ladies’ World Cup will now move to Germany were two downhills are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday, while the men’s Tour will be travelling to Korea for the Winter Olympic Games, where the first downhill training will be held on the 8th of February.

The following 16 ladies were confirmed to compete in the Audi FIS Ski World Cup Stockholm city event:

1. Frida Hansdotter SWE

2. Petra Vlhova SVK

3. Wendy Holdener SUI

4. Bernadette Schild AUT

5. Nina Haver-Loeseth NOR

6. Melanie Meillard SUI

7. Anna Swenn Larsson SWE

8. Katharina Gallhuber AUT

9. Denise Feierabend SUI

10. Irene Curtoni ITA

11. Christina Geiger GER