Slovenian skier Andreja Slokar on Saturday won the only women’s World Cup parallel slalom of the season, edging Thea Louise Stjernesund of Norway in the final of the floodlit event.
Slokar lost the first run of the final in dense snowfall, but beat Stjernesund in the decisive heat to win by .05 seconds on aggregate.
It was the first career win for Slokar, whose previous best result was eighth in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, in March — the final slalom of last year.
Photo: AFP
“For sure, it’s not the same as winning slalom or giant slalom, but I enjoyed it. It’s nice. It was a great experience,” Slokar said, adding that she had not expected to win.
“I’m really enjoying skiing parallel, even if I don’t train it much. It’s fun, I like to compete when I have someone I can see next to me,” Slokar added.
Stjernesund’s Norwegian teammate, Kristin Lysdahl, beat world champion Marta Bassino of Italy by 0.1 seconds in the duel for third place.
Pre-race favorites Lara Gut-Behrami, who had her 300th career World Cup start, and Katharina Liensberger, who shared the world title with Bassino in February, both failed to finish their second run in the last 16.
Many of the leading giant slalom skiers sat out of the event — including Mikaela Shiffrin, Petra Vlhova and Federica Brignone — who all preferred to train for upcoming races.
Recovered from a back issue, Shiffrin is planning to race at two slaloms in Levi, Finland, next weekend.
Parallel racing is part of next year’s Beijing Olympics, but only as a team event.
The race had a knockout format as two competitors raced side by side on identical, shortened giant slalom courses.
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