The German dominated the first round of the World Cup slalom in Are (Sweden), where the two stars of the circuit are still fighting over the big globe. Gisin and Danioth are in on it.
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The German referee in the fight for the Grail.
Without Camille Rast, injured in both knees the day before, nor Wendy Holdener, who fell heavily on Friday and had to have her left calf stitched up (7 stitches), Swiss-Ski had to rely on the talent of Michelle Gisin. The Obwalden resisted this little pressure well and positioned herself for the second round, scheduled for 1:45 p.m.: she is 6th at 0”38, just 0”27 from the provisional podium.
Just behind the leading pack, Aline Danioth (7th at 0.55) took an option to give herself a nice gift on her 24th birthday. The Uranaise, who has only three top 10 finishes in the World Cup (and as many torn ligaments!), has the opportunity to achieve her best career result. So far, except for a parallel team victory in Andorra in 2019, his reference ranking remains 7th place in Zagreb three years ago.
For her return to business after two months of European Cups, Mélanie Meillard will be able to take a second start at the start of the afternoon. The Neuchâtelo-Valaisanne managed a promising first route, finishing in 26th place less than two seconds away. St-Galloise Nicole Good also passed the cut in extremis, with her bib number 52. She will start in 2nd, with 2”31 outlays on Dürr.
In front, it is the German Lena Dürr who leads the ball of the slalom women. She beat by a breath (0”08) the Slovak Petra Vlhova, whose fight for the general classification of the World Cup with the American Mikaela Shiffrin (4th at 0”25) is definitely burning. The Swedish Anna Swenn Larsson managed to insert herself between the two champions with only 11 hundredths of disbursements. The Austrian Katharina Liensberger is 5th at 0”35. In other words, everything remains to be done.