Alpine skiing: RTL thriller ends with two winners

Brignone, leading 24 hundredths of a second ahead of the Slovakian world champion after the first round, was the first runner this season to enjoy the second victory in a giant slalom. In December, the 29-year-old had already triumphed in Courchevel. Vlhova celebrated her third success in the third race en suite after the slalom victories of Zagreb and Flachau. Shiffrin improved from fourth to fourth place on the podium, but in the end the 24-year-old was one hundredth of a second short of her 65th World Cup victory.

In contrast to the previous race in Lienz, the Austrians had no say in the battle for the top positions. Katharina Liensberger, third on the podium before the turn of the year, had to be satisfied with 17th place as the best Austrian in Sestriere. Katharina Truppe as 27th and Anna Veith in 28th place also made it into the top 30.

Liensberger risks too late

Liensberger said he had taken too little risk in the first run and thus awarded a better placement. In the second round, the Vorarlberg woman took a more aggressive approach and, unlike her teammates, did not fall behind. “There was definitely more fighting spirit from the start,” said the 22-year-old in an ORF interview. After a mistake at the top, she found the optimal line at the bottom, says Liensberger. The good trip in the final section gives the woman from Vorarlberg hope for the premiere of the RTL parallel race on Sunday: “Fortunately we only drive in the lower part.”

Unlike in slalom, troops did not get going again in giant slalom. “It’s a fight and a cramp at the moment. Everything I try backfires. I don’t know what it is at the moment, ”said the Carinthian. Veith also looked for explanations. “It was very mixed. From the underground it was difficult for me to feel everything correctly and to accelerate. I would have felt like I had taken a step, but the result of course does not say that, ”said the disappointed Salzburg native.

There were no World Cup points after a strong first round for Julia Scheib. The 21-year-old Styrian had made the leap into the decision with the high number 35 as 20th, but there the junior world champion of 2018 slipped from the course after just a few seconds in giant slalom. From an Austrian perspective, in the first round u. a. Franziska Gritsch and Eva-Maria Brem already fell by the wayside.

“An incredibly tough fight”

On the other hand, there were two bright faces at the top. Brignone and Vlhova each secured their 13th victory in a World Cup race. It was the seventh success for the Italian, and the fourth success for the Slovak in a giant slalom. “It is so tight, three runners within a hundredth, that is incredible,” said Brignone, who was able to withstand the pressure from the home crowd: “I tried to escape the vortex and keep the thoughts of victory away. I focused on my run and my body. I succeeded. “

Vlhova hit the same horn. “It was an incredibly tough fight. The girls in front of me were very fast, so I had to attack fully, ”said the governing world champion,“ but I’m very happy. This year (in the giant slalom, note) on the podium for the first time and then immediately the first is unbelievable. “Shiffrin took the narrow defeat in a sporty manner:” I hoped that I would make it onto the podium. With a hundredth you think: man, but that’s how skiing is. I was already on the good side of this hundredth of a second. Happens.”

–