(Reuters) – France’s Tessa Worley edged ahead of Slovak Petra Vlhova to her first World Cup win of the season in the giant slalom in Lienz, Austria on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old set the pace in the first run on the Schlossberg course and maintained her advantage to win in two minutes 3.88 seconds. Vlhova finished 0.30 seconds behind in second while Sweden’s Sara Hector took third.
“Skiing today was really fun, the slope was perfect and I enjoyed the challenge being in front in the first run. I feel I can trust my skiing and I’m really glad about that,” said Worley after her 15th World Cup victory in the event.
Hector, who was second after the opening run, dropped to third following two costly mistakes in the final run, eventually finishing 0.38 seconds behind Worley. It was a third straight podium for the Swede.
Olympic gold medallist Mikaela Shiffrin, who claimed her 72nd World Cup victory in Courchevel last week, and world champion Lara Gut-Behrami missed the race in Lienz after testing positive for COVID-19.
Italy’s downhill Olympic champion Sofia Goggia benefited from Shiffrin’s absence and finished 12th to cut the American’s lead at the top of the overall World Cup standings to 93 points.
Lienz will host a slalom event on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara lewis)
