The Italian Federica Brignone claimed the first victory of the World Cup this season, winning this Saturday in the women’s giant of Sölden (Austria), in which the American Mikaela Shiffrin was fifth after having led the first round.
With the loss at the last minute of the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami, winner of the general classification last season, Shiffrin and Brignone started as favorites to climb to the first podium, in which finally only the second one was at the top.
The 34-year-old Italian was third in the first race (1:06.22), after which Shiffrin was aiming for victory, and in the second, after a bad start, she recovered speed in the last two sectors to finish seventh ( 1:09.83), debut with victory and thus become the first leader of the World Cup.
Brignone completed the test with a time of 2.16.22, followed by the New Zealander Alice Robinson, who was also second in the first round and who finished 17 hundredths behind the Italian (2:16.22). Third was the Austrian Julia Scheib, at 1.08 (2:17.13).
Shiffrin, who starts the season three wins shy of 100 in the World Cup and one away from equaling Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll’s crystal globe record, was the best in the first heat (1:05.82), ahead of Robinson and Brignone, but sank in second to 27th place (1:05.82) from the first sector and was unable to recover in the next three.
The defender of the overall title, the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami, was the big absentee at the start of the World Cup, since shortly before the start of the event in Sölden she confirmed her withdrawal due to not having fully recovered from the flu. The Czech Petra Vlhova also did not compete today, having already announced her absence in the first rounds of the calendar.
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