Downhill Teams Test New Beaver Creek Course

Vail, CO, December 2--The new "Birds of Prey" downhill course at Vail's Beaver Creek saw its first racers today. The course will host where the next alpine World Championships, which will take place in Vail, in 1999.
The Austrian ski team dominated the training trails, scoring five of the top 10 times. Hannes Trinkl was the fastest with a final time of 1.43.56, in front of Germany's Stefan Krauss (1.44.00) and fellow Austrian Stefan Eberharter (1.44.35). AJ Kitt, who switched last Summer from Rossignol to Salomon, was the best US skier in 30th position at 2.85 seconds.
Most of the downhillers were pleased by their first contact with the new race course, which was built in less than six months. Vail spent over $5 million on the "Birds of Prey" run, which runs for 2623 meters. Although not very long, the course is considered very challenging. "This course has all the elements which are needed in a modern downhill," said AJ Kitt. "There is a long flat part after the start, but then comes a very steep wall and many tight turns. The final part has larger curves and some jumps. You need to fight all the time to score a good result here. It should be a very spectacular competition".
While the reigning champ Bruno Kernen totally agreed with Kitt when he described this piste as "perfect," Italy's Kristian Ghedina was less enthusiastic.
"It's not the type of course on which I most enjoy to compete," he said." It's too narrow in my opinion and not fast enough. I like it more when you have to fight with your guts. It reminds me of the Olympic course at Lillehammer. I know I can do very well here as I did in Norway where I' got top-3 places in the past, but I will have to force my nature and be very focused. Anyway, the most important for us is that the season starts finally".
Indeed, like Ghedina most of the racers were just glad to be out there skiing, after bad weather forced officials to cancel last weekend's races scheduled at Whistler, in Canada.. The downhill event has been rescheduled for Thursday, December 4. The Super-G may be fit in this weekend also, or it may be pushed forward to next January at Schladming, in Austria.