Lacking confidence, Shiffrin is beaten for second straight slalom
FLACHAU, AUSTRIA >> After her rare second straight defeat in a women’s World Cup slalom on Tuesday, Mikaela Shiffrin admitted to lacking confidence. Not that she felt overly confident when she was winning almost every slalom race in recent years.
“I am not somebody who really believes in myself,” the American four-time world champion said after Petra Vlhova won a night race by 0.10 seconds over Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden, 10 days after the Slovakian skier had also triumphed in a slalom in Zagreb.
Shiffrin, who was second after the opening run, came 0.43 behind in third for her worst result in the discipline in two years, when she failed to finish in the final race before the Pyeongchang Olympics.
“The way that I have been able to be on the top for so long, is I always did more work, harder work and better work than everybody else did,” said Shiffrin, who has a record 43 World Cup wins and six season titles in the discipline, and has won four straight world championships and Olympic gold in 2014 in skiing’s most technically demanding event.
Vlhova positioned herself for the win by building a lead of six tenths of a second in the opening run. Though she lost some time on Shiffrin and Larsson in the final run, she had done enough for her 12th career win, and seventh in slalom.
NASCAR changes rules to try to improve short-track racing
CHARLOTTE, N.C. >> NASCAR has changed the rules on its aerodynamic package for short tracks and road courses because the racing didn’t improve at those venues under rules introduced last season.
NASCAR had been fairly adamant the rules package would remain unchanged but reversed course late last season when it was evident the racing clearly had suffered at smaller tracks.
The most glaring issue was a ho-hum penultimate race at Phoenix Raceway, which this season will host the championship finale.
A week after the dud in Phoenix, NASCAR President Steve Phelps promised fans the sanctioning body was working on improving the racing at short tracks.
Teams will now use a separate rules package at Bristol, Dover, Martinsville, New Hampshire, Phoenix, Richmond, the Charlotte Roval, Sonoma and Watkins Glen. The changes include a significantly smaller rear spoiler, which shrinks from an 8-inch height to 2.75 inches. The front splitter’s overhang will now measure a quarter-inch (down from 2 inches), with approximately 2-inch wings (reduced from 10.5 inches).
European Tour gets even tougher on slow play
ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES >> The European Tour stepped up its attack on slow play by announcing that players will be given an immediate one-shot penalty if they exceed time limits for taking shots on two occasions in the same tournament.
The initial plan was to apply the penalty for two so-called “bad times” within the same round, but that has been changed as tour officials get tougher on what they believe is the biggest problem in the game.
There also will be increased fines for players who are regularly timed by officials.
The changes were announced on Tuesday, two days before the start of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, one of the main tournaments on the European Tour schedule.