New star to wear cast on thumb in bid to land title early -Italy's new skiing star Denise Karbon will ski through the pain in her broken left thumb at this German resort Saturday and could land the World Cup giant slalom title with two races left.
''Denise shouldn't have particular problems apart from the pain - and we'll give her painkillers for that,'' said Italian Skiing Federation doctor Herbert Schoenhuber.
''She might have a problem in pushing off at the start but after that it should go OK because you don't usually hit the poles in the giant slalom,'' he added.
Karbon leads the giant slalom standings by 141 points from Austria's Elisabeth Goergl and could become the first Italian to claim the title since Deborah Compagnoni in 1997 if she places well and her rival doesn't.
Italian women's team coach Much Mair said: ''Denise has an iron will and I'm sure she'll come good again. She's had much more serious injuries in her career''.
Karbon, 27, was out of action for much of the 2001-2004 period with a series of bad knee problems.
Karbon, who won the first four of this year's five giant slaloms and placed third in the fifth, will wear a cast on the thumb she broke in training Wednesday.
She will travel to Milan on Monday so that Dr Schoenhuber can fit a special carbon-fiber brace that will help the fracture heal. The bone should take about 30 days to set, he said.
Luckily, even if Karbon doesn't seal victory here, the World Cup takes a break of more than a month after Ofterschwang.
The seventh and penultimate giant slalom is in another German resort, Zweisel, on March 1.
If things go wrong for Karbon and Goergl stages a comeback, it could go down to the wire - but Karbon would have home advantage in the eighth and final race at Bormio on March 15.
