Page 18 - ARUBA TODAY

A18 SPORTS
Wednesday 1 February

Shiffrin wins city event to

boost overall WCup lead

Mikaela Shiffrin, of the United her position in the race for remaining.
States, celebrates at finish line the overall World Cup title If Shiffrin finishes third or bet-
after winning an alpine ski, Tuesday by winning a par- ter in the March 11 slalom
women’s World Cup parallel
slalom in Stockholm, Sweden, allel slalom city event, while in Squaw Valley, California,
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017. Linus Strasser became the she wraps up the title even
Associated Press surprise winner of the men’s a week before the World
competition. Cup finals in Aspen, Colo-
STOCKHOLM (AP) — In ab- Shiffrin’s 28th win in her 99th rado.
sence of her main rival, Mi- World Cup start stretched Nina Loeseth of Norway
kaela Shiffrin strengthened the American’s lead over placed third after defeat-
defending champion Lara ing Frida Hansdotter of
Gut to 180 points. The Swiss Sweden.
skier skipped the event to Hansdotter is the defend-
rest a sore right arm and ing World Cup slalom
thigh after hooking a gate champion, who took the ti-
in a super-G in Italy on Sun- tle last season when Shiffrin
day. missed five races because
“I came here for a reason. of a knee injury.
I am happy to get that Last year’s winner Wendy
crossed off the list,” said Holdener was beaten in
Shiffrin after her maiden the opening round by Swiss
win in a city event, which teammate Melanie Meil-
also counts toward the sla- lard.
lom standings. In the men’s competition,
“It was a great show to- both pre-race favorites lost
night. I think everybody in the opening round.
enjoyed it. We could hear Five-time overall champion
everybody screaming. This Marcel Hirscher got edged
is really fun,” added Shiffrin, in both runs by Aleksander
who can become the first Aamodt Kilde. The Norwe-
American overall champi- gian, who has never com-
on since Lindsey Vonn won peted in a World Cup sla-
her fourth title in 2012. lom, won the heats against
Vonn returned just weeks the Austrian by 0.02 and
ago from an 11-month inju- 0.01 seconds, respectively.
ry layoff and did not qualify “Last year I won by two
for the event, where racers hundreds, now I lose by
compete head-to-head in three hundreds. That’s
a knock-out format, with part of the deal at those
the winner over two runs events,” Hirscher said. “You
advancing to the next can’t underestimate any-
round. one. Kilde had great starts
Only the slalom top 12 and into his runs.”
the four best ranked skiers Hirscher’s 60-point lead in
from the overall standings the discipline standings re-
were allowed to start. mained intact as the run-
In the final between the ner-up, defending World
two top-ranked slalom ski- Cup slalom champion Hen-
ers, Shiffrin won both runs rik Kristoffersen, also went
against Veronika Velez Zu- out in the first round.
zulova of Slovakia. Kristoffersen skied off the
The result also boosted Shif- course in his opening run
frin’s chances to win the against Strasser, and the
discipline title for a fourth Norwegian failed to make
time. The Olympic champi- up his regulatory 0.5-sec-
on leads Velez Zuzulova by ond deficit in the second
145 points with two races run.q