Tanja Poutiainen of Finland on Friday won the women's World Cup slalom event at Zagreb, edging out Marlies Schild of Austria and Slovakia's Veronika Zuzolova to win in one minute 53.72 seconds.
Schild and Zuzolova were 0.52 and 0.68 seconds off the pace respectively but the former profited from the second leg woes of compatriot Nicole Hosp to take the lead in the discipline standings by 75 points.
Hosp, standing second at the end of the opening run, 0.29 sec behind Schild, before failing to finish, also lost out on the chance to make the most of the absence of overall leader Lindsey Vonn, who missed the race to prepare for next week's test at Whistler Mountain in Canada.
PHOTO: AP
Vonn and Hosp both have an overall 983 points.
Poutiainen was only third after the opening run but then turned on all the style in the second for her seventh career success.
This season she had managed podium finishes in slalom at Aspen and Lienz.
"I had a good feeling on the first run," Poutiainen said.
"I knew I had nothing to lose. I wasn't at the top of the World Cup slalom standings unlike Marlies and Niki. It's been three years since I last won a slalom. It's been a long time but I have regularly been in the top 10," she said.
Schild had the benefit of extending her lead in the overall slalom standings with two rounds left.
"I would have liked to have won here as that would have been my third victory here," the Austrian said.
"But I am on top of the slalom standings and that's a good thing. As far as the overall World Cup title is concerned [Schild is 102 points off the pace] I try not to think about it because I am too far behind," Schild said.
Emerging Norwegian teen star Nina Loeseth, who turns 19 on Feb. 27, placed fifth for her best result to date.
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