9th victory for Shiffrin

Mika-Mania in the Levi Slalom! ÖSV team comes away empty-handed

Mikaela Shiffrin (center) won ahead of Lara Colturi (l.) and Emma Aicher.(Bild: GEPA)

Skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin won the first World Cup slalom of the Alpine skiing winter in commanding style on Saturday, triumphing for the ninth time in Levi. The US-American relegated Lara Colturi (+1.66 sec.), competing for Albania, and the German Emma Aicher (+2.59) to the other podium places.

For the 30-year-old Shiffrin it was her 102nd World Cup victory, her 65th in the slalom. Katharina Liensberger left Finland as the best Austrian in tenth place (+3.20).

(Bild: GEPA)

  "The second run suited me better, I tried to push from the start. There were turns that were more like racing again, I'll take them with me," said Liensberger from Vorarlberg, who was 14th at the halfway point. The result from an Austrian perspective was "absolutely" disappointing. "It wasn't our day. We can't be sad for too long, the next race is coming up. We are looking forward to Obergurgl."

Katharina Liensberger(Bild: GEPA)

Shiffrin made it clear that she wants to reclaim the slalom globe from Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic (sixth on the day). She had concentrated on the giant slalom in her summer training, but hadn't worked too much on the slalom recently, but had worked on it to a high standard. This was evident on Saturday with two perfect runs. "That's a good feeling. I pushed hard and enjoyed skiing in the second run."

Huber and Hörhager fall back
Katharina Truppe and Katharina Huber came 16th ex aequo (+3.66 sec.). Truppe described the first run as "bad", in the second she found a few "good things", but was admittedly dissatisfied. "I wanted too much from myself, I need to calm down again. There's a lot to do for next week," said the Carinthian. Huber was hurt by the drop from ninth place at the halfway stage. "I wanted to push him down, I got too impetuous. That's a lesson for me." You can't afford to make mistakes, now you have to keep working. "We were beaten below our value. We're in good shape, but we weren't able to show that today."

The final score:

Lisa Hörhager ended up in 23rd place, dropping well back in tenth place at half-time. "It's good to see where I stand when I have a really good run. I'm happy, I want to get into the 30s consistently." Katharina Gallhuber finished 24th and Natalie Falch (43rd) and Franziska Gritsch (56th) did not qualify for the second run.