Italy’s Laura Pirovano yesterday completed a stunning World Cup downhill double on home snow to oust injured US Alpine ski great Lindsey Vonn from the top of the standings.
Vonn, the 41-year-old who broke her leg at the Milan-Cortina Olympics last month, had led the discipline from the start of the season with two wins and five podiums from five races.
Pirovano on Friday won by the slimmest of margins in Val di Fassa for a career first World Cup win, and the 28-year-old repeated the feat a day later after crossing the line 0.01 faster than Austria’s Cornelia Huetter.
Photo: AFP
Switzerland’s Corinne Suter was third, 0.05 slower than the Italian.
Pirovano has 436 points with Germany’s Emma Aicher on 408 and one downhill to come on Saturday last week at the World Cup finals in Norway. Aicher was equal 12th yesterday.
“It’s even more incredible than yesterday, I can’t take it in. It’s all surreal,” said Pirovano, whose 0.01 advantage translated into about 28cm on the piste.
“The margin of one hundredth, twice in a row. I think it’s payback for all those times the hundredths went against me,” she added.
Vonn’s pre-injury points tally of 400 remained within the sights of Germany’s Kira Weidle-Winkelmann (351), Huetter (344), and world and Olympic champion Breezy Johnson of the US (333) who was fourth yesterday.
“Winning the title was my goal... And I came painfully close to achieving it,” Vonn commented in a lengthy Instagram post before the race.
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