Pietilae-Holmner delights Swedish fans

The 28-year-old local favourite narrowly beat World Cup leader Tina Maze of Slovenia for only her third career victory in a combined time of one minute 43.65 seconds.

Maze was 0.08 seconds adrift and Sweden placed a second skier on the podium with Frida Hansdotter, 0.32 behind her compatriot.

Skiing greats Pernilla Wiberg and Anja Paerson, with 14 and 18 World Cup slalom wins in their careers, never managed to clinch victory in the discipline on home snow.

Paerson had to be content with a slalom bronze medal at the Are world championships in 2007.

"It's amazing. It was my dream to win again, especially once here on home soil as it never happened so far," said Pietilae-Holmner, whose last victory came nearly four years ago in a city event in Munich.

Her win reflected the strength of Swedish women's skiing, with youngster Sara Hector, Hansdotter and Kajsa Kling also in the World Cup overall top 20.

Are will host the 2019 world championships and Pietilae-Holmner said she was planning to be there.

Maze leads the overall World Cup standings on 560 points, which is more than her total after nine races in the 2013 season when she won with a record total of 2,414.

"I don't spend all day thinking about the record of two years ago. But it would be nice to beat my own record. I'm going to focus on that. My goal this season is clearly the big globe," Maze said.