Shiffrin bounces back with Lienz giant slalom win
LIENZ: Mikaela Shiffrin claimed a 63rd alpine skiing World Cup win yesterday with a convincing victory in the giant slalom at Lienz, where she finished over a second ahead of her rivals. Bouncing back from a 17th place slump in Courchevel last week the defending overall champion sped nervily down the icy Schlossberg slope in Austria’s East Tyrol to post the fastest time on both runs.
The 24-year-old American was a comfortable 1.36sec ahead of Italy’s Marta Bassino after the two runs with Austria’s home hope Katharina Liensberger in third. On the podium Shiffrin punched the air and kissed her skis before the runners up hoisted her arms in the air in a jubilant atmosphere in downtown Lienz.
“It’s pretty hard to believe this right now, I know that sounds strange but it is,” a joyous Shiffrin told Eurosport. “It sounds a little bit stupid to say that the last week was a tough time because I’ve still had already an amazing season ... it’s stupid really, but I care and it was tough.
“It was amazing to ski today, really excited. I’m excited!” Shiffrin extends her lead at the top of the overall World Cup standings to 215 points ahead of Italian Federica Brignone, who sits top of the giant slalom standings despite finishing fourth yesterday.
The win for Shiffrin, who has taken the last three overall titles, moves her one ahead of retired Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell for individual women’s World Cup victories. She is closing in on men’s skiing legend Marcel Hirscher’s total of 67 but still has some way to go to catch compatriot Lindsey Vonn, who racked up 82 wins before hanging up her skis at the end of last season.
Meanwhile, Italy’s Dominik Paris survived a late scare from unheralded Swiss Urs Kryenbuehl on Saturday to snatch a fourth straight men’s World Cup downhill win on his home piste in Bormio, his second in 24 hours.
The 30-year-old battled the aches from his exertions of the previous day to lead the way in 1min 55.37sec and maintain his domination of the icy ‘Stelvio’, despite Kryenbuehl’s late push which saw the Swiss finish just 0.08sec behind to take his first podium finish.
Defending World Cup downhill champion Beat Feuz of Switzerland had to settle for third, 0.26sec off the pace, for his fourth podium in as many races this season. “It wasn’t easy after yesterday to do another perfect run,” said Paris, who moves top of the overall World Cup and downhill standings after his back-to-back wins.
“I was the lucky one with the wind, it was changing a bit. “But conditions were perfect, better than yesterday, a little bit icier and harder.” Both Paris and Feuz had looked set to go 1-2 for the second consecutive day after Friday’s downhill which replaced Val Gardena in the Italian Dolomites. But Kryenbuehl, wearing the bib 25, blitzed down late in sunny conditions in the Italian Alps to move between the top two. The 25-year-old Swiss had achieved the best result of his career on Friday when he finished 13th. “It’s an incredible day for me,” said Kryenbuehl. “It’s amazing to share the podium with two such great skiers who manage to be consistent race after race.”— AFP