Golden Germany
ByReuters
Published 13/02/2005 at 10:19 GMT
Germany, led by Felix Neureuther and Monika Bergmann-Schmuderer, won the inaugural Nations team event on the final day of the Alpine skiing world championships on Sunday. Favourites Austria had to settle for the silver medal, with France taking the bronz
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Image credit: Eurosport
Already in front after the morning's opening four super-G races, the German team preserved their lead with a consistent run of results in the first three slalom runs.
Two first places for Neureuther and Bergmann-Schmuderer, along with a third place for Martina Ertl, were enough to seal victory with one run still to go.
"The important thing in this new event is that you don't want to let down the others on the team," said Germany's Hilde Gerg. "Although our individual results have not been as good as we wanted, we've had a real team spirit here and you could see that today."
With Germany already celebrating, the final men's slalom run did prove decisive in terms of silver and bronze. Rainer Schoenfelder's closing was victory enough to guarantee Austria their 11th medal of the championships.
Austria's team performance also brought Benjamin Raich his fifth medal of the fortnight, following two golds, a silver and a bronze in his four individual competitions.
The 26-year-old from Pitztal became the only the second man, after Norway's Lasse Kjus in 1999, to take five medals at a single world championships.
There was disappointment for the two North American teams, with Canada dropping from third place at the halfway stage to eventually finish fifth.
The United States ended up fourth, just one penalty point behind the French, thanks in part to another disappointing slalom performance by overall World Cup leader Bode Miller.
Miller had put the Americans in contention during the super-G section when he and team mate Daron Rahlves both won their respective runs.
But the freshly-crowned super-G and downhill world champion was disqualified from the second slalom run after skiing out of the upper part of the course.
Sunday's championship-ending event had been marketed by the International Ski Federation (FIS) as skiing's answer to the Davis and Ryder Cups of tennis and golf.
First impressions suggested that the competition certainly has a future, with skiers and spectators both responding warmly to what proved an exciting finale.
"When you win it this is a superb competition," laughed Germany's Andreas Ertl, younger brother of Martina. "It was so much fun and something great for the future, but it was especially good for the German team.
"For most of us this is our first medal, and to win in the same team as my sister is very cool."
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