Sport

Maier upsets favourites to gain first win

AUSTRIA'S Hermann Maier, who gave up skiing and turned to bricklaying in his teens because of injury, took the first World Cup…

Mon Feb 24 1997 - 00:00

AUSTRIA'S Hermann Maier, who gave up skiing and turned to bricklaying in his teens because of injury, took the first World Cup victory of his career on one of the toughest pistes in Alpine skiing at Garmisch Partenkirchen yesterday.

The 24 year old Maier, who skied a remarkable run from start number 32 to finish second in a super G on Friday, surprised the big names again by clocking an impressive one minute 21.64 seconds to win from number 18.

The stocky Maier, racing only the third World Cup super G of his career, won by more than half a second with Italy's Kristian Ghedina second in 1:22.16 and Norwegians Lasse Kjus and Atle Skaardal sharing third place in 1:22.25.

Maier had to give up skiing at the age of 15 because of a bone problem in his knee and he earned his living as a bricklayer and ski instructor.

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"But when I saw my former team mates doing so well on television I was motivated to come back," he said. "This is like a dream after all the problems I have had in my career. I skied like bin a dream today."

It was an even more remarkable performance considering that Maier broke his arm in a downhill in the French resort of Chamonix in mid January and was unable to compete in the recent world championships.

The Austrian, who until this season had never finished in the top 10 of a World Cup race, said: "If anybody had told me in Chamonix that I would win a World Cup race, I would have called them crazy. But I knew I could do well here after Friday.

"Maybe the fact that I did not compete at the worlds made me more focussed," said Maier who was greeted at the finish by a group of banner waving fans from his local club in Flachau.

Several of the top racers struggled to master the icy piste and missed gates. Frenchman Luc Alphand, who had already completed a super G and downhill double on the German course on Friday and Saturday, was only "able to finish sixth.

But Alphand did stretch his lead over rival Kjetil Andre Aamodt in the overall World Cup standings. The Norwegian all rounder, who finished back in 16th, is now 163 points behind the Frenchman.

Alphand, who leads both the superG and downhill rankings, has a chance to become the first Frenchman to win the overall title since Jean Claude Killy in 1968, though Aamodt races in more disciplines.