World Cup false start for Liensberger: First replacement, then dethroned

For Katharina Liensberger, who was the superstar of the Alpine Ski World Championships 2021 in Cortina d’Ampezzo with two gold medals and one bronze, the title fights in France started with a bitter disappointment. The 25-year-old from Vorarlberg, who has recently been looked after individually by ex-ÖSV coach Mathias Berthold, suffered two defeats.

The first was not being nominated for the team event, in which Austria did not get past fourth place, the second was failing to qualify for tomorrow’s parallel giant slalom (12 p.m., ORF 1 and live ticker on nachrichten.at).

Liensberger started as the defending champion in this rarely practiced discipline. With a time of 34.52 seconds, she finished twelfth on the red track.

But the Feldkircherin would have had to finish in the top eight to survive elimination and reach the final of the top 16. There is only Franziska Gritsch from the female ÖSV quintet, Ricarda Haaser, Julia Scheib and Katharina Huber also said goodbye.

“It’s no use now”

Previously, Liensberger had only been a reserve player in the team competition, the ÖSV coaches gave Scheib and Gritsch, who had been faster than Liensberger in the internal qualification, their confidence. Now looking ahead, the technology specialist still has two chances. One in the giant slalom on Thursday, where she forms the red-white-red quartet with Haaser, Scheib and Gritsch, and another in the slalom on Saturday.

“I tried to let the skis go, and then in the end it bothered me a bit. I didn’t go down the valley enough, then I skied far too many meters than I needed,” said Liensberger about the parallel Qualification: “Of course I would have liked to be able to drive there at least tomorrow. But it’s no use now.”

Pertl and Raschner on the move

In the men’s race, Adrian Pertl showed promise as the fastest on the blue course at his first appearance at the World Championships in France. The slalom vice world champion from Cortina mastered the qualification in fifth place overall. Dominik Raschner, who was at the top of the ranking at the same time as Rasmus Windingstad (North), did even better.

For Stefan Brennsteiner, who complained of knee problems after a fall, and Fabio Gstrein was the end of the line.