Under the lights of the Hermann Maier racecourse in Flachau, Petra Vlhova has returned to the top of the podium in a slalom event. It's her first win of her season.
Vlhova benefited from the course set by her trainer Mauro Pini in the first run and set the best time, and then showed her class in the second run setting the second best time, only Lena Duerr was even faster, and extended her lead over Mikaela Shiffrin.
The Slovakian has won 27 World Cup races, 18 in the Slalom discipline. To this day, the 27-year-old skier had scored seven World Cup podiums this season but had failed to claim victory.
The Slovakian has won the Flachau Night Slalom three times. He won at the Austrian ski resort in 2019 and 2020.
Vlhova finished in the top-four in the last 16 World Cup slalom events she started in. This includes six wins.
"I’m really happy because it was a long, long wait to win again. It's something special that I can do it in front of this crowd with a lot of fans from Slovakia. Beating Mikaela this season is special, she doesn't make mistakes. If you beat her, that's big. I did in the two runs and I win. I want to say thank you to my team because they’re always supporting me even if I’m a little bit bad or a little bit down. I’m super happy to win here, it’s something special”, said Vlhova.
Mikaela Shiffrin finished in second place 0.43 seconds behind Vlhova. It's her 72th podium in Slalom in the World Cup.
“I'm not feeling well, but that's not surprising after such an intense series of races. Petra skied well, she deserves the win. It was a great show. Now I'm going to take a little break and I'm looking forward to Cortina", said Shiffrin.
Lena Duerr finished in third position (+0.85) after setting the best time in the second run to earn her first podium of the season. It's her 6th Slalom podium in the World Cup.
"It's incredibly cool. I do not know what to say. I am just happy. I'm proud of the whole team. This is a brilliant achievement by all of us. Three in the top ten. In terms of audience, this is probably the best race for us. It's really fun, brutal atmosphere", Duerr said.
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