12 Established 1961 Sports Tuesday, January 23, 2018 Shiffrin prepares to bounce back in giant slalom in Kronplatz Shiffrin dominates start of the season with ten World Cup wins MILAN: World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin will be Colorado leads the giant slalom standings by 55 points looking to bounce back into winning mode ahead of the from France’s Tessa Worley with Germany’s Viktoria Winter Olympics in today’s giant slalom in Kronplatz, Rebensburg third a further eight points adrift. Italy. Shiffrin has dominated the start of the season with Rebensburg-the Vancouver Olympic giant slalom ten World Cup wins but had mixed fortunes in nearby winner-returns after a two-week flu absence which saw Cortina d’Ampezzo over the weekend despite a promis- her miss Bad Kleinkirchheim in Austria and Cortina. ing third place in Friday’s downhill. Worley, a two-time world giant slalom champion, fin- The slalom specialist finished seventh in the second ished second behind Shiffrin in Slovenia and is looking downhill on Saturday in the for her first win of the sea- Italian Dolomites and failed son. to finish Sunday’s Super-G. “It’s really technical and I But she is confident of laying like it,” said Worley, second the groundwork ahead of the behind Italy’s Federica Pyeongchang Olympics, Kronplatz is Brignone last year, of starting on February 9, on the Kronplatz. Brignone won challenging Erta slope. one of the more last year’s first edition of the “Kronplatz is one of the race and is hoping to com- more technical tracks on the technical tracks pete despite a high fever circuit and reminds me of keeping her out of Sunday’s Squaw Valley. A ton of terrain Super-G in Cortina. and really fun to ski,” said the Teammate Sofia Goggia American, the holder of six returned home to Bergamo giant slalom wins on the World Cup circuit including after the highs and lows of Cortina where she won the Kranjska Gora, Slovenia and Courchevel, France this downhill only to crash out of the second downhill and season. the Super-G the following two days. Shiffrin has a 876-point lead over Tina Weirather of Hosts Italy have other injury problems but Manuela Liechtenstein in the overall standings but knows she Moelgg, third last year, returns looking to add to her CORTINA: File photo shows third placed Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates during the podium ceremony of the FIS will have competition with “a lot of girls skiing really three podiums this season at Solden, Killington and Alpine World Cup Women’s Downhill replacing Val d’Isere event in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italian Alps. — AFP fast in the giant slalom now”. The 22-year-old from Courchevel. — AFP still suffering pain. Czech Sablikova “I didn’t know something could hurt like this,” she said. “The pain is sometimes really unbelievable. “One moment it is good, one moment not so much. I was just Canada’s Belchos in race to be in Italy for three weeks where I trained for everything I should. looks to mend fit for Games “Sometimes I went through the pain, but sometimes I almost didn’t feel the pain. It depends. “The worst is entering the turns... The pain is sometimes really, really Sochi heartache PYEONGCHANG: Czech speed skater Martina unbelievable. It’s a pain that I have to get through. Sablikova has had injections and is still battling pain in “When I go at a sharp tempo, then it is really hard to in South Korea her back which she hopes will not harm her chances at fight it, but so far it can be done.” The 30-year-old from next month’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Nove Mesto Na Morave has won three Olympic gold The long-distance specialist has a problem with a medals, has held the world record in the 5,000m since SOCHI: After the heartbreak of missing out on the disc in her back, which makes it difficult for her to com- 2011 and her rivalry with Dutchwoman Ireen Wust is Winter Olympics in Sochi by the narrowest of mar- pletely stretch her leg and while she had painkilling one of the sport’s most intense. gins four years ago, Canadian speed skater Jordan Belchos is all set to step it up a gear when he takes to injections, decided to miss the European Speed Skating Wust beat Sablikova to gold in the 3,000 at the the ice in South Korea. Championships earlier this month to focus on the Sochi Games four years ago, but the Czech came back The Toronto native missed the cut for Sochi by a Games. “I want my back to get fully in order and I can strong to win the 5,000 and defend the crown she had few hundredths of a second and is still pinching him- tell myself in Korea that I’ve done all I could,” she told claimed for the first time at the Vancouver Games in 2010. In Korea, Sablikova will focus on the 1,000m and self after being selected to race for Canada in the Czech media when she announced her decision to skip Martina Sablikova 10,000m and the team pursuit at next month’s Winter the European Championships in Kolomna at the start of 3,000m, although her coach Petr Novak has not ruled Games. “Last Olympics, I missed the Games by six January. “After the last World Cup (in Salt Lake City), I her out of taking part in the 1,500m as well. “Martina hundredths of a second, so I remember that feeling, consulted with doctors. I had a shot and we found out it had something blocked in her back, which has loosened, Novak added that Nikola Zdrahalova, in the mass start, and I guess just the contrast to that is pretty amaz- had helped but I would need the shot to go closer to but some small problems have remained. As if you catch and Karolina Erbanova in the women’s 500m were both ing,” he told Reuters from Canada’s training base in the nerve. Then it should be completely fine. a cramp and it holds on you for a month and does not also medal contenders. Calgary. “It was unbelievable. If it had happened to “Fortunately it has improved already.” She has since want to relax completely,” he said. “I believe Martina and Karolina will be fighting for anybody else, I would have been like, ‘No way, that’s improved enough to return to action at the ISU World “We are working on Martina’s back to be at least 99 medal positions,” Novak said. “Martina on both her dis- insane’.” Belchos’s misery at missing out on Sochi was Cup event in Erfurt at the weekend where she raced in percent fine at the Games. I stay calm. Even in her cur- tances and Karolina mainly in 500m. In the group race compounded by confusion in the local media over the 1,500m and 3,000m, but said beforehand she was rent condition she would fight for medals in Kora.” Nikola may be in the game too.”— Reuters whether he had qualified for the 10,000m. “There was a news article released (saying) that I’d qualified (for Sochi), there was a couple I guess that didn’t fully understand the rules,” the 28-year-old said. “I had to tell these people, ‘no, I’m not qualified’. Dutch team player People were congratulating me and I was like, ‘No, no, I’m actually just going to miss it.’ “At a certain point I Blokhuijsen hopes got sick of telling the same story. It was kind of a sad story. I made it my goal the next four years that I was going to use that to be better.” for solo success STIFF COMPETITION AMSTERDAM: Jan Blokhuijsen was part of the formidable Belchos faces stiff competition in the 10,000m Dutch speed skating squad that won gold in the team pur- from his Canada team mate Ted-Jan Bloemen, the suit in Sochi and while he has come to be known as a real current world record holder, as well as from ‘team player’ he will be setting his sights on a first individ- Dutchman Sven Kramer, one of the favourites to ual Olympic title in Pyeongchang. medal in South Korea. Blokhuijsen has been a fixture on the speed skating cir- “Ted and Sven Kramer, those guys are a little bit cuit in the Netherlands since junior level and finished sec- head and shoulders above the rest,” he said. “But ond in the Sochi 5,000 metres behind team mate Sven besides that I believe there’s a lot of guys that have a Kramer, who he will go up against over the same distance chance. “To go to the Games and to really challenge in South Korea next month. in the same distance, the 10,000m, would be the ulti- The 28-year-old got his first taste of Olympic success mate kind of finish for me.” at the 2010 Vancouver Games, when he took a bronze Belchos was struck down by injury before and medal in the team pursuit along with Kramer, Mark Tuitert after Canada’s Olympic trials for Sochi, but those and Simon Kuipers. experiences only strengthened his resolve. “So the Four years later, Kramer, Blokhuijsen and Koen Verweij June before Sochi, I crashed my bike and I had a bad stormed to the top of the podium in Sochi, and the same concussion,” he said.