Marta Bassino wins the giant slalom in Sestriere to claim first World Cup victory, Mikaela Shiffrin finishes sixth
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Updated 10/12/2022 at 14:38 GMT
Marta Bassino delighted the home crowd in Sestriere to secure her first World Cup win of the season. She won her her first race on home snow and tops the giant slalom standings. Elsewhere, it was a frustrating afternoon for Mikaela Shiffrin, who was denied a 77th World Cup victory and finished sixth overall with an overall time of 2:30.85, 1.26 seconds of adrift of Bassino.
‘Oh, she’s done it!’ - Bassino snatches victory on home soil at Sestriere
Marta Bassino claimed her first World Cup victory of the season in front of a jubilant crowd at Sestriere in the women’s giant slalom.
The Italian claimed an overall time of 2:28.89, 0.11 seconds of Sweden's Sara Hector (2:29.00) and 0.40 seconds clear of Petra Vlhova (2:29.29). Federica Brignone narrowly missed out on a podium spot with an overall time of 2:29.29, despite posting the best second round time of 1:16.29.
Bassino’s first victory on home snow leaves her at the top of the giant slalom crystal globe standings, in what was an exhilarating finish to the race.
Between 30 and 50cm of snow had fallen in the previous 48 hours which created some tricky conditions on the course.
Vlhova led the way after the first run with a time of 1:12.30 racing bib number six when conditions were already starting to cut up badly on the course.
She had a slender seven hundredths of a second lead over Bassino, who skied first and had the best conditions.
Her time of 1:12.37 was enough to move up into second after the first run, while reigning World Cup giant slalom champion Tessa Worley of France was four tenths off the pace with 1:12.70.
Arguably the stand-out story from the first run came from Asja Zenere, and she along with the Italian crowd were jubilant after her outstanding time of 1:14.15. The achievement was all the more remarkable considering she started the race at bib number 43.
It was a tense race to secure a top-30 finish going into the second round, and Austria's Stephanie Brunner prevailed with a time of 1:15.12, narrowly pipping Sweden's Lisa Nyberg, who was eighteenth of a second further back.
Brignone was among the stand-out performers from the second run and performed magnificently to storm into a 1.38 second lead with six skiers left to race.
It was a sensational run which was lapped up by the Italian crowd heading into a tantalising finale, with Vlahova needing to produce a stunning round two performance to finish in top spot.
She registered a time of 1:16.99, which was ultimately not enough to secure her first World Cup win of the season and secured third spot and a podium finish.
Overall general classification leader Mikaela Shiffrin was denied a 77th World Cup victory and finished sixth overall with an overall time of 2:30.85, 1.26 seconds of adrift of Bassino.
However, she still holds a 25-point lead of Vlhova in the standings on 305 points, while Wendy Holdener is third with 266 points.
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