Vlhova defeats Shiffrin

LEVI, FINLAND» Practice made perfect for Petra Vlhova on Saturday, beating Mikaela Shiffrin in the first World Cup slalom of the season.

The Slovakian overall champion had been training for three weeks in Finnish Lapland and skipped a parallel event in Austria last week to get ready for the first race in her strongest discipline.

The tactics paid off. Vlhova posted the fastest time in both runs. She initially lost a few hundredths from her slim lead of .11 over Shiffrin but accelerated near the end of her final run to win by .31 as the pair continued their dominance in the annual event in Finnish Lapland.

Lena Dürr finished .84 behind in third for the German skier’s second career podium result, nearly nine years after winning a city event in Moscow.

No skier other than Vlhova or Shiffrin has won the traditional season-opening slalom since then-overall champion Tina Maze triumphed in 2014. Shiffrin and Vlhova have now each win it four times.

“Here on this kind of slope I like to ski, it’s something special to me,” said Vlhova, who won two slaloms in one weekend here last year.

It was Vlhova’s 21st career win. She received her fourth reindeer, a prize for the winner of the race, and said she would name it Michal.

“That is the name of my boyfriend. ,” Vlhova said.

Having dealt with a back issue that hampered her training over the last few weeks, Shiffrin was made to wait at least one more day in her bid to match the 32year-old record for most World Cup victories in a single discipline. Currently on 45 slalom wins, the American is one short of Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s best mark in giant slalom. Another slalom is scheduled for Sunday.

The American three-time overall champion was gracious in defeat.

“I think it was clear that Petra had, all together, better skiing and better consistency,” said Shiffrin, who’s seeking career win No. 71.