Ortlieb wins 1st World Cup, Brignone extends overall lead

LA THUILE, Italy (AP) — Nina Ortlieb edged Federica Brignone of Italy by one hundredth of a second to win a women’s World Cup super-G on Saturday for the Austrian’s first career victory.

The win for Ortlieb, daughter of 1992 Olympic downhill champion Patrick Ortlieb, came one week after she earned her first podium result, finishing third in a downhill in Crans Montana.

Brignone extended her lead in the overall standings to 153 points from the absent Mikaela Shiffrin.

The American three-time overall champion hasn’t competed for the past five weeks, taking a break from the sport since the death of her father, Jeff Shiffrin.

Corinne Suter lost control of her right pole halfway through her run and was 0.07 seconds behind in third. The Swiss skier remained in the lead of the discipline standings, 19 points ahead of Brignone, with only the season-ending race in Cortina d’Ampezzo remaining.

Last week Suter wrapped up the season title in downhill and she could become the first female skier to win both speed titles in the same season since American standout Lindsey Vonn achieve the feat five years ago.

Petra Vlhova, who got treatment for a knee issue at the beginning of the week, confirmed her progress in the speed disciplines as the Slovakian skier trailed by 0.39 in fourth.

Vlhova is 189 points behind Brignone in the overall standings. She was expected to make up ground on the Italian in next week’s technical races in Ofterschwang, but the event in Southern Germany has been cancelled due to a lack of snow and won’t be rescheduled.

Saturday’s race took place in the Valle d’Aosta region, which is outside the Northern Italian regions affected by the coronavirus. Italian authorities have banned sporting events in Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna and Liguria until March 1.

However, only a limited number of spectators were allowed at the race and public events, like the prize-giving ceremony and the draw of the starting bibs for Sunday’s race have been cancelled.

There were also rules in place for journalists, who had to keep a distance of at least 1.5 meters when interviewing racers in the finish area.

An Alpined combined event, consisting of a super-G and a slalom run, is scheduled for Sunday.