Germany’s Maria Riesch and Tanja Poutiainen of Finland shared victory at a women’s World Cup night slalom on Tuesday.
The two skiers both finished in a combined time of 1 minute, 42.52 seconds for the two runs.
Nastasia Noens of France was 0.52 back in third for her first career podium finish.
PHOTO: AFP
Olympic champion Riesch was third after the opening leg and trailed leader Poutiainen by 0.41 seconds. She put in a flawless final run to claim her seventh World Cup slalom victory in total, but only the first since winning in Levi, Finland, in November 2009.
“I thought Tanja would be out of reach, this is just unbelievable,” said Riesch, who had finished second in four slaloms this season.”
“Many times, things went wrong for me in the second run, so I am very glad now,” she said.
PHOTO: AFP
Riesch wasn’t clean in the first run as her right ski went up in the air, but the German avoided skiing out.
“I am just very happy that I made it to the finish,” she said. “The course is really icy so you have to be wary throughout.”
Riesch extended her lead in the overall standings over defending champion Lindsey Vonn to 196 points. The American went out in the first run.
The three-time defending champion straddled a gate and has failed to finish her first run in four straight races.
The course was set by US women’s slalom head coach Trevor Wagner, but Vonn never looked comfortable from the start and was already 0.80 behind Poutiainen’s time when she went out after 25 seconds.
“My slalom troubles continue, another disappointing slalom race for me,” Vonn wrote on her Facebook page. “I am not exactly thrilled right now, but I have been training really well and the bad luck has to turn around eventually, I hope.”
Poutiainen, who earned her 11th World Cup victory, won her sixth career slalom — the first since placing first in Zagreb in February 2008.
“I’ve been skiing really well all season, but just came short every time,” Poutiainen said. “I am over the moon it all worked out today and I hope I can build on this for the rest of the season.”
Riesch also went top of the slalom discipline standings as Austria’s Marlies Schild skied out in her second run and failed to score points.
Pre-race favorite Schild, victorious in Flachau last year, had won four of the previous five slalom races this season but found herself 1.40 behind after a string of mistakes in the first run.
“I had many errors as the back of my skis slid away several times,” she said.
Schild went out attacking in her second run but seemed to approach some gates too straight and crashed out before the first intermediate time.
Fellow Austrian and former overall champion Nicole Hosp and 2007 world champion Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic both skied out after missing a gate in the opening run.
Julia Mancuso finished 4.12 seconds off the leading time in 44th which left Sarah Schleper the only American to qualify for the second run, but she crashed out there.
The women’s World Cup travels to Maribor for a GS and slalom race this weekend.
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