Shiffrin wins super-G, 2 days after downhill triumph
BANSKO, Bulgaria (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin won a women’s World Cup super-G Sunday for her second triumph in a speed event in three days.
The three-time overall champion from the United States used her outstanding giant slalom skills to navigate the many sharp turns on the Marc Girardelli course and beat another technical specialist, Italy’s Marta Bassino, by 0.29 seconds.
Shiffrin was about three tenths ahead of Bassino’s time from the first split and the margin hardly changed throughout her run.
It was Shiffrin’s first win in the discipline since clinching the super-G world title in February, and she went top of the season standings.
Sunday’s result came two days after the American won a downhill on the same hill. It marked the first time in Shiffrin’s career that she won two speed events in the same weekend.
Former overall champion Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland was 0.70 behind in third for her first podium result of the season.
One of Shiffrin’s main rivals for the overall title, Federica Brignone, was leading by 0.08 at the final split time but the Italian lost her balance as she hooked a gate and slid off the course.
Viktoria Rebensburg, who led the discipline standings going into the race, finished outside the top 10, while the winner of the previous super-G, Sofia Goggia, skipped the race to rest her bruised right ankle following the Italian’s crash in Friday’s downhill.
With two wins and Saturday’s fourth place in another downhill, Shiffrin left the Bulgarian resort with 250 points, extending her lead in the overall standings to 370 points over Brignone and 395 over Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, who finished Sunday’s race in sixth.
The victory was Shiffrin’s 66th career win, leaving her one short of Marcel Hirscher’s tally. The Austrian record eight-time overall champion, who retired in the off-season, is third on the all-time winners list, behind Ingemar Stenmark (86) and Lindsey Vonn (82).
The women’s World Cup travels to the 2014 Olympic venue in Rosa Khutor for a downhill and super-G next weekend.
