Lara Gut-Behrami defends her Giant Slalom red jersey in style
Winning by more than a second in the Giant Slalom in Kronplatz, Lara Gut-Behrami celebrates her 42nd World Cup victory, the eighth in this discipline. The Swiss athlete continues to extend her lead in the Giant Slalom World Cup. Sara Hector also races to the podium in second place.
"Lara Gut-Behrami has got everything going for her at the moment. She has absolute confidence in the equipment, and that is definitely the crucial point. She is skiing with great precision, makes almost no mistakes and is on top form. Today we took three of the top four places, four among the fastest eight, and the younger athletes have done very well too. You can see things are working out, which is really very cool for us!“ exclaims HEAD Racing Director Rainer Salzgeber.
Fifth victory this season for Lara Gut-Behrami
Lara Gut-Behrami paved the way for her victory on the first run. The 32-year-old started the second run with a lead of 59 hundredths of a second, which, with the third fastest time, she extended to lead the pack by a total of 1.09 seconds. This is the fifth victory this season for the Swiss athlete, her third in the Giant Slalom following Sölden and Killington. In the overall discipline ranking, Lara Gut-Behrami is now 85 points ahead of Federica Brignone, who is in second place. Sara Hector is in third place. "At the moment I feel confident on my skis and can attack without risking too much. Everything feels that little bit easier. It's good for me that I can take a little break now," is how Lara Gut-Behrami analysed her success at the finish.
"Second place is really great"
Following her magnificent victory in the Giant Slalom in Jasna on January 20th, Swedish athlete Sara Hector was delighted to step onto the podium in second place in Kronplatz. "I'm really happy, second place is really great. I skied very well most of the time. It's not easy to get everything right all the time, so this podium is really good," said Sara Hector. Norwegian athlete Ragnhild Mowinckel just missed the podium in fourth place. Camille Rast from Switzerland finished eighth overall with the fourth fastest time on the second run. World Cup points were also picked up by Elisabeth Kappaurer from Austria in 17th place, Kajsa Vickhoff Lie from Norway in 23rd place, Elisa Platino from Italy in 26th place, and A J Hurt from the USA who finished in 27th place.
