Worley takes GS title, Italians sweep podium
ASPEN (United States): France’s Tessa Worley clinched the World Cup women’s giant slalom season crown Sunday while Federica Brignone won the last race of the campaign in the discipline, leading an Italian podium sweep.
Worley became the first French woman to win a World Cup title in any discipline since 2003, taking the first season globe trophy of her 10-season career.
“This winter has really been a dream come true,” said Worley, who won the world championships title in the giant slalom at Saint Moritz last month. “It’s unbelievable.”
Brignone took the final race win of the season in a combined two-run time of 1:58.01 with Sofia Goggia second in 1:59.45 and Marta Bassino third, another ,03 back.
“This is so great,” Brignone said. “I always love to be on a podium with a teammate and today with two it was amazing.
“I just tried to attack all I had. I knew it was bumpy and it was not easy. I was confident. I knew what I had to do.”
Worley was fifth in 1:59.84, one spot and 0.31 of a second in front of American Mikaela Shiffrin, the only person who could have denied her the World Cup giant slalom title.
“I’m not very satisfied,” Shiffrin said. “I had some very good turns but I didn’t have enough aggression to take it.”
Sweden’s Andre Myhrer won the World Cup Final men’s slalom for the second year in a row, taking the season’s final race in 1:27.97 with Germany’s Felix Neureuther second, .14 back, and Austrian Michael Matt third, another .01 adrift.
“It’s amazing to have this finish to the season. It’s great motivation to get into the gym. I have a lot of work to do before I can ski next season,” Myhrer said after his first race win of a season nagged by back issues.
Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, who had already clinched the men’s overall, slalom and giant slalom World Cup season titles, was fourth in 1:28.29. He won Saturday’s giant slalom for his sixth race victory of the season.
Hirscher won a sixth consecutive World Cup overall crown this season as well as his fourth giant slalom title in six campaigns and his fourth slalom trophy in five seasons.
“It means a lot to me for sure. It was one of the greatest season’s I’ve ever had,” Hirscher said. “All in all it makes it a perfect year.”
Worley finished on 685 points, 85 ahead of Shiffrin for the season in giant slalom. For the title to have gone to Shiffrin, who captured the overall and slalom World Cup crowns, she would have had to win while Worley finished 13th or worse.
“My strategy was to do what I knew to do,” Worley said. “I was skiing this winter with nice, smooth and safe skiing and i just wanted to do the same thing.” - AFP