SÖLDEN, Austria (AP) — Lara Gut-Behrami edged Mikaela Shiffrin by two-hundredths of a second because the pair constructed a giant lead within the first run of the season-opening ladies’s World Cup big slalom on Saturday.
Austrian skier Stephanie Brunner was the quickest of the remainder of the sector however trailed by greater than half a second in third.
Defending total champion Petra Vlhova sat .81 behind in sixth, whereas Marta Bassino skied out.
The Italian, who received the race a 12 months in the past and dominated the self-discipline with 4 wins final season, misplaced management of her proper exterior ski midway by means of her run, when she was already .57 behind then-leader Shiffrin.
Gut-Behrami, who's the GS world champion, had an aggressive run in good sunny circumstances on the Rettenbach glacier because the Swiss star led Shiffrin’s time by a couple of hundredths all through her run.
Gut-Behrami had the sooner begin and was .09 forward on the first break up however misplaced a fraction of her lead over Shiffrin at every of the next test factors.
The American three-time total champion opened the race with a clear run.
Shiffrin briefly shrugged her shoulders after ending, however her time simply held up when different pre-race favorites got here down.
New Zealand’s Alice Robinson, who received the season opener in 2019, completed .90 off the lead; Federica Brignone, the 2020 total World Cup champion, was 1.51 seconds behind; and French standout Tessa Worley had 1.65 to make up within the second leg.
With a number of the large names struggling, others took their probability to complete the opening run within the high 10.
Slalom world champion Katharina Liensberger got here fourth, Canadian prodigy Valerie Grenier was fifth, and Slovenia’s Meta Hrovat additionally completed inside a second of Gut-Behrami’s lead in ninth.
Amid tight anti-coronavirus measures, the race was attended by 9,000 spectators.
A minute’s silence previous to the race was devoted to Gian Franco Kasper, the longstanding FIS president who died in July, simply weeks after Johan Eliasch was elected as his successor.
___
More AP snowboarding: https://sociallytrend.com/hub/skiing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
___
Eric Willemsen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eWilmedia
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Conversations are opinions of our readers and are topic to the Code of Conduct. The Star doesn't endorse these opinions.
