Mikaela Shiffrin 1, Petra Vlhova 1: Over to the slalom to determine who is the queen of the skiing World Championships.
Vlhova won the latest episode of what is rapidly emerging as the biggest female rivalry in the sport by capturing gold in the giant slalom on Thursday to become Slovakia’s first world champion.
Coping best in winds that reached 70kph amid unseasonably mild temperatures, Vlhova used her size and power to negate a 0.19-second deficit to Viktoria Rebensburg after the first run and beat the German by 0.14 seconds.
Shiffrin took bronze to add to the gold medal she won in the super-G on the opening day.
Asked if the slalom today would determine the best female ski racer of the championships, Vlhova — the gold medal around her neck — leaned back on the sofa.
“We will see on Saturday, but sure it will be a good fight with Miki,” she said.
Aged 23 like Shiffrin, Vlhova is proving to be the biggest threat to the American’s dominance of Alpine skiing. The Slovakian is the only racer to beat Shiffrin in the slalom this season and she also recently won two giant slaloms on the World Cup circuit — tying with Shiffrin in the final giant slalom before the worlds.
This win, which added to the silver she won in the Alpine combined on Friday last week, took her to a new level.
“Finally, I showed to everyone who is Petra from Slovakia,” Vlhova said.
Shiffrin knows about her, all right.
“It’s motivation,” she said. “It’s inspiring in some ways.”
Shiffrin said she lost some self-belief once she saw the conditions in the morning, when it rained for the second straight day to add to the strong winds that forced organizers once again to shorten the course.
There was already added external pressure on the American after she chose to skip the combined to preserve energy for the giant slalom and slalom. The careful planning did not pay off.
Shiffrin was 0.44 seconds off Rebensburg’s lead following the first run.
Determined to ski more aggressively in the second leg, Shiffrin turned in only the sixth-fastest run and ended up happy just to claim third place for her sixth World Championship medal — just two off the US record.
Vlhova relished the conditions. She even overcame crashing into a gate in between the second and third checkpoints of the second run, which saw her briefly lose control.
“Sometimes it’s really hard and you have a lot of pressure because in Slovakia, we are a small country and we have just a few athletes like I am,” she said.
There is still more to come from Vlhova, who said she might start competing in speed events “because we knew from the summer I can be really fast.”
MOTHER KNOWS BEST: Warriors’ coach Kerr said his 91-year-old mother criticized him for his attitude toward officials that led to his ejection from Monday’s game Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Wednesday rescued the Oklahoma City Thunder with a game-tying buzzer-beater before finishing with 46 points in a 129-125 overtime victory against the Utah Jazz. The reigning NBA champions looked to be heading for a third straight loss after the Jazz inched into a 114-112 lead following Lauri Markkanen’s layup with just three seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. However, NBA Most Valuable Player Gilgeous-Alexander drained a superb 13-foot jump shot to tie it up at 114-114 as the buzzer sounded to send the game into overtime. Gilgeous-Alexander then took over in the extra period with nine points as the Western
Manchester City have confirmed defender Josko Gvardiol suffered a broken leg in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium. Gvardiol was one of two City centerbacks who went off injured in the second half, along with Ruben Dias, before Enzo Fernandez scored a stoppage-time equalizer for the visitors. The draw left second-placed City six points behind English Premier League leaders Arsenal. City, announcing Gvardiol sustained a tibial fracture to his right leg, added in a statement issued on Monday: “The defender will have surgery later this week and assessment remains ongoing to ascertain the full extent of the
AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE: Sabalenka aims to follow up with a third Australian Open win, while Taiwanese Joanna Garland claimed a WTA 125 title in Canberra Aryna Sabalenka beat Karolina Muchova in straight sets to reach her third Brisbane International final in a row yesterday, a week ahead of the Australian Open. Sabalenka looked in great touch against the tricky Czech, who had won their last three meetings and went into the match as one of the few players with a winning record over the world No. 1. However, Sabalenka showed her class and power as she broke Muchova once in each set to take the semi-final 6-3, 6-4 in 89 minutes to face Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the final. “I struggled against her a couple of times [in
Mohamed Salah’s Egypt knocked reigning champions Ivory Coast out of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with a 3-2 win in the quarter-finals on Saturday, while Victor Osimhen starred as Nigeria beat Algeria 2-0 to set up a clash with hosts Morocco. In Agadir, Morocco, a thrilling last-eight tie saw Omar Marmoush and Ramy Rabia net in the first half for the Pharaohs before an own goal by Ahmed Aboul-Fetouh brought the Ivorians back into it. Salah then got Egypt’s third early in the second half and they held on after Guela Doue again reduced the deficit. Egypt is to face Senegal
RSS