Alpine skiing: Worely seals World Cup giant slalom title

Alpine skiing: Worely seals World Cup giant slalom title
By Euronews
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The Alpine skiing World Cup season ended on Sunday at the Colorado resort of Aspen.

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The Alpine skiing World Cup season ended on Sunday at the Colorado resort of Aspen.

Before the final day’s action all the crystal globes had been won on the women’s circuit, with the exception of one, the giant slalom.

Tessa Worley, who was in pole position to win it, did not disappoint as she became the first French women to win a World Cup title in any discipline in 14 years.

The 27-year old clinched the season-long giant slalom crown with a fifth-place finish in the final race of the campaign.

She crossed the line just over three tenths of a second ahead of American Overall World Cup winner Mikaela Shiffrin, who was the only skier who could have denied her the title.

La française Tessa Worley remporte la Coupe du monde de slalom géant, la première Française à remporter ce globe depuis Carole Merle en 1993 pic.twitter.com/GoCcyLwweB

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) 19 mars 2017

Shiffrin was seeking a 12th race win of the season to match Lindsey Vonn’s US record.

The 22-year-old reigning Olympic slalom champion was second after the first run, but was off the pace in the second and had to settle for sixth.

Shiffrin will be going home a double champion from this season, though, after securing her first overall world cup title in front of her home crowd on Saturday as well as winning her fourth slalom title from the past five years.

It was Federica Brignone who celebrated victory in the final race of the campaign.

She led an Italian clean sweep of the podium with Sofia Goggia second and Marta Bassino in third.

It was only the second ever Italian podium sweep on the women’s world cup circuit – the first was 21 years ago.

At the summit

For some time now there has been no suspense in the race for the men’s overall and slalom titles.

Marcel Hirscher had guaranteed himself both globes before weaving his way through the gates of Aspen.

He was leading after the first run but he failed to repeat that performance in the second and was beaten to the final slalom post by Sweden’s Andre Myhrer.

Myhrer had only two podium placings this season without a win before Aspen.

But he saved his best till last when he navigated the course perfectly to hold off Felix Neureuther of Germany in second and Austria’s Michael Matt in third.

It was his sixth career victory and first since November 2012 in Levi Finland.

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All six of his triumphs have now come in his favoured slalom discipline.

Hirscher, meanwhile, enjoyed a slender 0.08-second lead heading into the final run.

But the 28-year old reigning six-time overall world cup champion lost speed in the second run and missed out on a 50th career slalom podium finish by just under two tenths of a second.

Take off

Kamil Stoch and Stefan Kraft renewed rivalries on the sky flying hill of ow over Vikersund in Norway.

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And it was Poland’s Stoch who came out on top for his seventh individual win of the campaign.

The Four Hills Tournament winner was second after the first round, but he secured victory with a winning score of 466.6 points when leader Andreas Wellinger from Germany lost his balance on his last jump and dropped down to 18th.

At 44-years old, Japanese jumper Noriaki Kasai, broke his own record as the oldest man to podium, with second while Austrian Michael Hayboeck took third.

With the win Stoch cut the gap on his rival Kraft to just 31 points with two rounds of the season left at the Slovenia resort of Planica.

Austrian Kraft could only manage fifth place on the day although he will take some solace in the fact he won the Raw Air 10-day series of World Cup contests in Norway.

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