Holdener leads Swiss 1-2 in combined at worlds

ST MORITZ: Wendy Holdener led a Swiss 1-2 in the combined event at the ski world championships yesterday, winning the race a short time after teammate Lara Gut was taken to hospital following a crash in warmups. Lindsey Vonn was fifth after a gutsy slalom run left her 0.47 seconds from a medal. The American had been only sixth fastest in the opening downhill.

Holdener, a slalom specialist, was 0.05 ahead of teammate Michelle Gisin, who took silver. Michaela Kirschgasser of Austria trailed Holdener by 0.38, and repeated her combined bronze from the 2015 worlds. One hour before the slalom leg, Swiss star Gut crashed in practice and seemed to injure her left knee. She was taken to a hospital in St Moritz. Gut, who won bronze in the super-G on Tuesday, had been third after the morning downhill. She is a doubtful starter for the marquee downhill on Sunday, which is Vonn’s main target.

The slalom run in falling snow flipped the standings from the downhill that began in sunshine three hours earlier. Firstrun leader Sofia Goggia of Italy and second-placed Ilka Stuhec of Slovenia failed to complete the slalom. Stuhec quickly went out just a few gates from the start. Slalom racers seemed to be favored by a decision to shorten the downhill course due to forecasted poor weather on higher sections of the slope.

Holdener, who is third in the season-long World Cup slalom standings behind American Mikaela Shiffrin, was just 0.94 off the lead in downhill. That Vonn was only 0.09 faster in her specialist downhill than Holdener was a surprise, and the American’s apparently tentative morning run came back to cost her. Vonn gestured to the finish-area crowd after both runs by holding out her arms as if she could do little more.

Vonn has never won a major championship medal in combined in six starts at the worlds and three Olympics. However, she completed the event on Friday for the first time since the 2005 worlds. Gisin was watched by her older sister Dominique, who took gold in the 2014 Olympic downhill in a tie with Tina Maze of Slovenia. —AP

—AP ST MORITZ: Wendy Holdener of Switzerland reacts in the finish area during the women’s combined slalom race at the 2017 Alpine Skiing World Championships.