Federica Brignone is not yet giving up in the hunt for Lara Gut-Behrami, the Italian won the giant slalom in Åre on Saturday with the fastest time in the second round ahead of the half-time leader Sara Hector from Sweden (+0.33) and the Swiss Gut-Behrami (+0.40). The Styrian Julia Scheib achieved her second-best career result in sixth place (+1.70).
Strongest team result of the season
Franziska Gritsch (9th), Stephanie Brunner (12th), Ricarda Haaser (14th) and Elisabeth Kappaurer (18th) achieved the strongest team result for Austria’s giant slalom team of the season. Haaser managed to qualify for the World Cup final in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Kappaurer missed the necessary place in the top 25 as 28th.
Gut-Behrami had taken a 135-point lead with him to the far north for the penultimate giant slalom. Now she didn’t close the bag by five points because of Hector. “It bothers me a bit because I didn’t have the right feeling in both runs,” said Gut-Behrami on ORF. It’s not their circumstances. “I have a feeling for many things, but not for soft snow.”
Slalom “for show”
Even in the overall World Cup, things haven’t worked out mathematically in the Swiss’ favor given her 286-point lead. There are still five races left, but Brignone won’t score any big points in the two slaloms. Brignone announced that she would compete in the slalom “for fun” on Sunday when Mikaela Shiffrin returned (10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m./live ORF 1). But she doesn’t want to give in to any illusions. “It’s too much (backlog). But it’s for the show, I’m trying my best.”
In challenging winter conditions on a compact piste, Hector had put six tenths between himself and Gut-Behrami in second place in the first round. Brignone followed another 55 hundredths behind. Scheib did well and the 25-year-old recorded the fastest time in the lowest section. A mistake in the middle section, when she had to cut off her momentum after a wave, cost her a better intermediate placement. “The run was difficult,” said the extremely self-critical athlete.
Scheib would have “needed magic run”
With two victories in FIS races, Scheib had boosted his self-confidence during the long World Cup break. In the second round, which was driven from the reserve start, the Styrian took risks again, but didn’t make the last transition perfectly and was annoyed about being in second place at the finish. “I was a little disappointed,” said Scheib. “I knew I had to unpack everything I had.” It would have taken a “magic run” to get to the podium, but the result was “two good runs,” said Scheib. Fifth place in Lienz remains the best result for the time being.
“Very, very valuable” day for Gritsch
Katharina Liensberger fell in the first round. She had threaded in after a wave with a large gap and subsequently complained of a headache. Katharina Troupe, fourth in the 2022 Olympic giant slalom, missed qualifying for the second round for the eighth time in the tenth RTL season (34th/+4.85th). Viktoria Bürgler was 6.33 seconds behind on her debut, but was faster than Elisa Mörzinger (+6.77).
Gritsch, meanwhile, spoke of a “very, very valuable” day. “I’ve had a brutal low lately. I didn’t really trust myself anymore and started to doubt,” said the day’s ninth.
