Olympic champion Sara Hector on Saturday won her second women’s FIS Alpine Ski World Cup giant slalom of the season as Italian skier Federica Brignone fell in the first run.
Hector, who was fastest in the first run, finished 1.42 seconds ahead of 18-year-old Lara Colturi of Albania, to move atop both the grand slalom and overall standings.
Thirty-four-year-old Brignone’s hopes of extending her lead in the grand slalom standings ended when she fell in her first race since extending her record as the oldest race winner in women’s World Cup history at Semmering in Austria late last month.
Photo: AFP
Hector, who won the second race of the season in Killington in November last year, was second in Semmering. She leads the giant slalom standings with 296 points after four races, 96 ahead of Brignone, while she moved top of the overall leaderboard on 407 points, 24 ahead of Switzerland’s Camille Rast.
She did it despite a seasonal cough.
“It’s really amazing,” Hector said. “But I was resting a lot this week, so maybe it helped a little bit. When I’ve been training a lot, resting is a good recipe.”
Photo: AFP
Colturi celebrated her second World Cup podium place and Albania’s first in grand slalom.
“I was feeling really confident in myself in the last week and finally I’ve made two really good runs,” said Colturi, who finished ahead of New Zealand’s Alice Robinson.
In the absence of injured Mikaela Shiffrin, AJ Hurt was the leading American racer in Kranjska Gora, 2.73 seconds behind Hector in 10th, ahead of teammate Nina O’Brien.
Lindsey Vonn, who made her return to World Cup racing in Switzerland on Dec. 21 after nearly six years of retirement, only competes in the speed events of downhill and super-G. She is due to race again this weekend in St Anton, Austria.
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