Tanja Poutiainen continued her bright start to the season with a third-place finish at Levi.

The World Cup slalom event in Levi beat a ski strike planned by lift operators, and saw Tanja Poutiainen retain her spot at the top of the early season rankings.

In the women's slalom race in Levi, Maria Riesch pushed Lindsey Vonn into second place by a margin of just 0.08 seconds. Finland’s Tanja Poutianen came third, 1.16 seconds behind, but retained the lead at the top of the World Cup standings she had acquired in the opening Giant Slalom of the season in Sölden, Austria last month.

“When I finished my second run I knew it would be my second podium in Levi in front of my home crowd,” Poutiainen said. “This was something special. I'm really happy about it. In the last few years I've been a little bit stronger in the giant slalom and kind of struggled with my slalom,” she said. “Now I started my season with a podium. I know everything is under control and I can go forward.”

Vonn was content with her second place finish, and was especially complimentary about the venue.

“The snow was perfect and the course setting was perfect,” she said after the competition. “The lights were on and it was fun. I was excited to race. Coming here to Levi I was really excited about it, just being out there with so many people and having such a great atmosphere really made me happy and excited to be racing slalom again.”

Men’s injury worries

Reinfried Herbst won the men's slalom race, beating Ivica Kostelic by a margin of 0.28 seconds, while none of the five Finnish men in the competition made it to the second round. The 31-year-old Austrian is now in top spot in the World Cup standings.

“In the first run I skied well, I had everything under control and made no big mistakes,” Herbst said. “In the second run I was very fast on the flat parts. It was important to push from the first gate to the last.” “I know when I'm at 100 per cent and today I felt like that,” added Herbst. “It's the first time that I've had a good result in the first race. It's a nice feeling.”

The miserable Finnish men's performance was due in large part to injuries, with Kalle Palander, Jukka Leino and Marcus Sandell all ruled out of the Levi race. “Three of our top skiers end up in the sick bay in the space of a couple of months!” exclaimed Ski Sport Finland General Director Janne Leskinen. “Even many other bigger countries could not handle something like this. We definitely can't.”

Strike threat

The Levi competition almost did not take place, as lift operators at ski resorts across Northern Finland took industrial action over pay. The service sector union PAM demanded a 3 per cent pay rise, with management only offering 0.5 per cent. Luckily, a local deal was thrashed out in Levi to ensure the World Cup event could go ahead.

Around 1,000 workers took strike action over the weekend, although the number is unclear because of the large number of temporary seasonal workers. Also in Ruka resort in Kuusamo, all the service industry workers went on a sympathy strike. During the weekend, some slopes were kept open with the resort owners, their relatives and superiors stepping in.

Egan Richardson
Lehtikuva - Markku Ulander