Austria's Anita Wachter Edges Out Favorites

	Wachter wins final GS

In a desperate attempt to beat Alexandra Meissnitzer in the giant slalom World Cup standings, Austria's skiing legend Anita Wachter won her fourth race of the season in front of Sweden's Anna Ottosson and Norway's Andrine Flemmen. But her younger rival, Meissnitzer, inevitably secured her success in the final GS standings with a solid 8th place.

Switzerland's Sonja Nef finished 4th in front of France's Leila Piccard who was in 2nd place after the first run.

Clocking the best times in both runs of this demanding giant slalom, Wachter, the 32-year-old skier from Montafon in the eastern Vorarlberg region of Austria, beat her toughest rival by an amazing 1.73 seconds to celebrate her 18th World Cup success. Yet she lost the Cup by 16 points to Meissnitzer, who only needed a 15th place to secure her season success in the giant slalom.

"I had no other choice than to take all risks in both runs," Wachter said after the race. "The race was really difficult and I'm really happy to have done so well."

"I hear that my entire village is already celebrating my successes..."— Alexandra Meissnitzer

"It has been by far my best season and I'm very proud of my achievements," she added. "I don't know yet what I'm going to do next season, I'll have a discussion about this with my trainers and then I'll think about it next week."

Wachter, who has raced since 1984 on the World Cup tour, was not upset by her short defeat in the GS World Cup. "Alexandra deserves her success, she has achieved impressive results this season in winning so many races and the overall World Cup too," said Wachter.

After this last race of the season, Meissnitzer won the overall World Cup trophy with a total of 1672 points—507 more than Germany's Hilde Gerg. Renate Goetschl is 3rd with 1035 points. The Austrian women team clinched all the five World Cup titles awarded this season, with Meissnitzer taking both the Super-G and GS trophies, Goetschl the downhill and Sabine Egger the slalom.

Italy's skiing queen Deborah Compagnoni announced that she will give up ski racing after this last competition. The 28-year-old skier from Santa Caterina, winner of six gold medals at Olympics and World Championships from 1992 to 1998, has been racing since 1986 in the Italian team. She has won 16 World Cup races and a giant slalom World Cup title.

	Meissnitzer and the overall title trophy

Alexandra Meissnitzer was exhausted after her second run, and she had almost no more energy left to carry the big Crystal globe at the award ceremony.

"The Cup is much bigger than I thought, and much heavier too," said Meissnitzer. "I can't lift it with one arm only. This was my most difficult day of the entire winter. I was more nervous today than in February in Vail. I'm not used to handle such a kind of tactical races—I prefer to go for it from top to bottom. But I couldn't take too many risks. I knew that Anita would go for it. I'm burned out but also very happy. It has been an awesome season for me. I have reached much more than I expected. We will have a great celebration now at home. I hear that my entire village is already celebrating my successes."

Meissnitzer has won a total of nine World Cup races and two gold medals at Vail. "I don't know if I will be able to repeat such as season," she also said. "Anita will be very difficult to beat next year— I'm sure she will remain with us."

Andrine Flemmen too has been very consistent this season after winning the first race in Soelden, Austria. She has been the only racer together with Janica Kostelic from Croatia to have scored points in each GS race this winter, finishing five times among the top-3. Flemmen was also 2nd in Vail.

Anna Ottosson reached her first podium of the season (she was 3rd last season in Are). The women's World Cup tour has been dominated by the Austrian team who won twenty races out of 34— their best team performance in the last 30 years with six racers taking firsts during the winter.

The next season will start end of October on the glacier overlooking the French ski resort of Tignes.

— Mountain Zone European Ski Correspondent