Vlhova defeats Shiffrin, wins reindeer at Levi World Cup

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LEVI, Finland (AP) — Follow made excellent for Petra Vlhova on Saturday, beating Mikaela Shiffrin within the first World Cup slalom of the season.

The Slovakian total champion had been coaching for 3 weeks in Finnish Lapland and skipped a parallel occasion in Austria final week to prepare for the primary race in her strongest self-discipline.

The techniques paid off.

Vlhova posted the quickest time in each runs. She initially misplaced a number of hundredths from her slim lead of .11 over Shiffrin however accelerated close to the tip of her ultimate run to win by .31 because the pair continued their dominance within the annual occasion in Finnish Lapland.

Lena Duerr completed .84 behind in third for the German skier’s second profession podium consequence, practically 9 years after profitable a metropolis occasion in Moscow.

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No skier apart from Vlhova or Shiffrin has received the standard season-opening slalom since then-overall champion Tina Maze triumphed in 2014. Shiffrin and Vlhova have now every win it 4 instances.

“Right here on this type of slope I prefer to ski, it’s one thing particular to me,” mentioned Vlhova, who received two slaloms in a single weekend right here final yr.

It was Vlhova’s twenty first profession win and first since working along with her Swiss coach Mauro Pini, who changed Livio Magoni within the offseason.

Magoni had coached Vlhova for 5 years and the Italian helped her develop into the primary total champion from Slovakia, however he was pressured to depart following unflattering remarks on Vlhova’s model of snowboarding reportedly made by him in an interview with an Italian newspaper.

“I really feel extra comfortable, extra free. That’s it,” Vlhova mentioned about working with Pini. “I don’t change if I alter my coach. I’m nonetheless the identical. As we speak was simply an incredible day for me in addition to for my crew.”

Vlhova acquired her fourth reindeer, a prize for the winner of the race, and mentioned she would identify it Michal.

“That’s the identify of my boyfriend. He’s right here and he’s the love of my life,” Vlhova mentioned.

Having handled a again subject that hampered her coaching over the previous few weeks, Shiffrin was made to attend at the very least another day in her bid to match the 32-year-old document for many World Cup victories in a single self-discipline. At the moment on 45 slalom wins, the American is one in need of Swedish nice Ingemar Stenmark’s greatest mark in large slalom. One other slalom is scheduled for Sunday.

The American three-time total champion was gracious in defeat.

“I feel it was clear that Petra had, all collectively, higher snowboarding and higher consistency,” mentioned Shiffrin, who’s looking for profession win No. 71.

“It’s straightforward to start out getting grasping and I really feel like so as to win races you actually must earn it and I earned the second place right this moment however I didn’t fairly earn the win.”

Shiffrin regained the lead within the total standings. After three races, she has 180 factors and is adopted by Andreja Slokar of Slovenia on 168 and Vlhova on 160.

“It was a fairly profitable day, particularly after I have a look at the final three or 4 weeks,” Shiffrin mentioned. “I had some good snowboarding and I had some sections that definitely weren’t excellent however nonetheless fairly good. It’s all the time actually nice to start out the season with a podium, in order that’s superior.”

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Slokar, who received the parallel occasion final week, was 1.12 behind in fourth, adopted by Anna Swenn Larsson, who was one-hundredth of a second additional again in fifth. The Swede returned from a knee harm to compete in her first World Cup race in 21 months.

Austria’s Katharina Liensberger was 1.28 behind in sixth. Liensberger edged Shiffrin and Vlhova to win the World Cup slalom title final season, a number of weeks after additionally profitable the world title within the self-discipline.