Vonn bombs as Schmidhofer wins world super-G

ST MORITZ, Switzerland: Austrian Nicole Schmidhofer pulled off a shock victory in the women's super-G at the World Ski Championships on Tuesday as American star Lindsey Vonn failed to finish and Swiss favourite Lara Gut came third.
Schmidhofer, with just two World Cup podiums in eight seasons, clocked 1min 21.34sec down the Engiadina piste in cold, overcast conditions in St Moritz, touching 60kph in little more than three seconds after leaving the start gate and hitting top speeds of 100kph.
"It was a perfect run for me," the Austrian said. "There were no really difficult gates and the jumps were not so big.
"I was close to the podium in the last races and I thought I had to do the podium now.
"I had a good week of training in Saalbach and I thought I'd try the same as the training and it was very good."
Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather claimed silver at 0.33sec, with Gut taking bronze — her fifth world medal after three previous silvers and a bronze — a further three-hundredths adrift.
The 27-year-old Schmidhofer, whose best previous world performance was fourth in the 2015 Beaver Creek downhill, could barely believe her luck when she streaked through the finish line ahead of Weirather before watching Vonn badly miss her line and ski out halfway down the course.
"I stayed on my feet so that was the most important thing," said Vonn, coming back from a broken arm that leaves her hand without total grip.
"I'm definitely disappointed about today. I lost my pole and lost my concentration for a minute.
"I tried to go too straight to make up for the time I'd lost — that was a bad tactic as I went over the roll and had no chance to make the gate."
'Duct-tape hand to pole'
Vonn admitted that the lack of grip in her hand meant for drastic measures ahead of Sunday's downhill.
"Going forward, I'm just going to have to duct-tape my hand to my pole because I can't afford to lose it again," she said, playing down any concerns that she had been nervous.
"I felt good and I felt confident in the start. I wasn't nervous. I was ready and I attacked.
"Sometimes it just doesn't work, that's ski racing and I can't let it get me down.
"I just have to keep focusing on tomorrow and try to build my confidence and try to get the timings for the downhill right.
"I think I'll be in good shape for Sunday."
After Vonn's departure, threats still remained for Schmidhofer in the form of Germany's giant slalom specialist Viktoria Rebensburg and Austrian Anna Veith, the reigning Olympic and world champion who missed last season through injury.
Rebensburg eventually came fourth, at 0.53sec, while Veith bombed out after badly negotiating a cut-up part of the slope, leaving Schmidhofer to breathe a huge sigh of relief in the finish area.
Slovakia's Ilka Stuhec, the winner of five races this season including three downhills and a super-G, came in 11th, one place ahead of fellow fancied Italian Sofia Goggia. — AFP