Michaela Dorfmeister is enjoying a perfect season-end at Altenmarkt - a day after her remarkable victory in a downhill, the 28-year-old Austrian won her first Super-G of the winter.

She beat by 66/100 of a second her teammate Alexandra Meissnitzer while Germany's Hilde Gerg, the new Super-G World Cup champion, was 3rd at 1,50 seconds.

Another German, Martina Ertl was 4th in front of Stefanie Schuster, the veteran of the Austrian team, who was competing in her very last World Cup race. Stefanie set the fastest intermediate time in the upper part of the course, but she made a mistake afterwards and lost much time.

This race was unfortunately also marked by the spectacular crash of the triple Olympic Champion Janica Kostelic, who lost her balance after clocking the second best intermediate time.

The skier from Croatia tumbled several times over herself. She was very lucky not to get seriously injured at that occasion: apparently she only torn muscles and ligaments of her right thumb.

Italy's new Olympic Champion Daniela Ceccarelli had to be content with a far 19th place - she didn't score a point in that race. Her teammate Isolde Kostner was 21st.

Dorfmeister, a frustrated 6th at the Olympics, picked the perfect number for this event - #1. The course was soon in bad shape and the skiers starting with higher number had no chance to challenge her in the lower damaged part.

A silver medal winner in Super-G back in 1998, the Austrian was totally relaxed going into the race after her superb success from the previous day.

"For the first time this winter, I felt no pressure and I achieved a very smooth run" she explained. "What a difference with my attitude at the Salt Lake City Olympics".

"I have a hard time to believe how well I'm skiing now - I'm really excited to have also won a Super-G after my strong performances in giant slalom and in the downhill yesterday. It makes me a decent Overall World Cup winner I guess. Now I'll fight with even more determination in Saturday's giant slalom at Flachau to try to win the GS Cup".

Meissnitzer, the 1999 Overall champion, felt almost as a winner too about her 2nd place - her best result since her accident back in November 1999.

"I know for sure now that I can make it back at the top, it's just a question of time and good training" she said.

"In the last years, I couldn't run and get back in shape because of the strong pains at my injured knee" she added. "I'm very motivated now and looking forward for a good summer after a last check at the hospital in Basle next month".

"Our team will be even stronger next season with three Overall World Cup Champion racing on the tour".

Hilde Gerg, who was twice 4th at Salt Lake City, showed great emotion on the podium as she received her second Super-G Cup - she already won it back in 1997. "But this one is worth more because I had to fight harder to get it after my injury two years ago" she said.

"I was unlucky in the Olympic races, so I'm really pleased to get this Cup today. In a few weeks, I'll undergo surgery at my leg - the doctors will take out the nail which they put in after my crash. Then I'll take a nice break to regain some momentum before the next snow-training camps in August. I plan to race at least another year then I'll see how I feel about going on".

Janica Kostelic was quite lucky not to injure herself more seriously during her horrible crash. The skier from Zagreb who started in 12th position, was obviously very determined on her way down the course. She was as fast as Dorfmeister in the upper part because losing her balance after a small jump. "The snow was quite soft and I caught an edge in that fast right turn" she said afterwards. " I tried hard to stay on my skis but I had too much speed at that point. I'm happy not to have hurt me, it could have been a bad crash".

The X-rays done later on didn't show any fracture but Janica had to wear a light cast to protect her thumb. She plans to compete on Saturday in the giant slalom.