Perfect weekend for Mayer, gloom for Maze

Matthias Mayer of Austria celebrates after winning the men's Super G of the Alpine Skiing World Cup in Saalbach Hinterglemm February 22, 2015. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

SAALBACH, Austria, Feb 22 (Reuters) – - Olympic downhill champion Matthias Mayer finally made the World Cup mark his talent deserved by winning both races on home snow in Saalbach. In contrast, Slovenia’s Tina Maze endured a dreadful weekend in Maribor, failing to score a point in the two technical races on her home snow to allow World Cup holder Anna Fenninger of Austria close the gap in the overall standings. Mayer, the gifted 24-year-old speed specialist, was an unexpected gold medallist in Sochi last year and he had only repeated his Olympic triumph once in the World Cup, at the Lenzerheide finals last winter. On a Saalbach course seldom used in the past 20 years, however, Mayer set the record straight by adding his first Super-G victory on Sunday to his downhill triumph the previous day. “A double after my Olympic title and my victory last year -- I’m finding my pace at last. Obviously my injury in November did not help my season start,” the Austrian, who tore knee ligaments in training for the early season, told reporters. “Now I feel I’m where I should be." In one minute 31.53 seconds, the Austrian beat Super-G world bronze medallist Adrien Theaux of France by 0.21 seconds and Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud was third, a further 0.04 adrift. The result was a consolation for big globe contender Jansrud, who completely missed his downhill on Saturday and made it back to within 116 points of overall World Cup leader Marcel Hirscher in the standings. Slalom specialist Hirscher made one of his few Super-G appearances in Saalbach, finishing 17th. “Clearly I came here to score 200 points but you can’t always get what you want," Jansrud said. "It’s going to be a close battle to the finish and a great fight with each race. But if Hirscher starts to hold up in the Super-G, I will have to practice my slalom.” The race for the big globe looks set to be even closer in the women’s World Cup with Fenninger now only 84 points behind Maze a month from the end of the season. The Austrian won Saturday’s giant slalom but Maze straddled a gate in Sunday’s slalom after crashing out in the first run the previous day. “It definitely doesn’t work out well for me here,” she said. “I don’t really know what to say about the World Cup. Obviously Anna is skiing too well for me right now and it looks like it’s going to be really tight,” she added. The slalom was won by Olympic and world champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States, who collected her third World Cup victory of the winter. Second-placed Slovak Veronika Velez Zuzulova and third-placed Czech Sarka Strachova finished more than a second adrift. (Reporting by Manuele Lang, Writing by Francois Thomazeau, editing by Ed Osmondond)