Second Slalom victory back-to-back for Wendy Holdener
Wendy Holdener had to wait a long time for her first Slalom victory in the World Cup. Just two weeks after her first win in Killington, the Swiss athlete followed it up with another victory on Sunday in Sestriere. On Saturday, Sara Hector celebrated a podium finish in second place in the Giant Slalom in Sestriere.
"It looks as though Wendy Holdener has finally opened up full throttle. That was extremely impressive in these difficult conditions," says the enthusiastic HEAD Racing Director Rainer Salzgeber. "The conditions were very different to those in Killington and in Levi. I think that we are now really very well positioned with the equipment tuning and this model of ski. When you feel comfortable with the skis, you can really pile on the speed. She was very close in Levi, which gave her the confidence and shows that we are on the right track. Sara Hector also had a super race on Saturday. Unfortunately, she made one small mistake on the second run, otherwise it would have been a podium finish as well. The conditions were really challenging, even more difficult than in the Slalom. We have shown that the equipment works everywhere, and we can build on that. In the men's events, you could see that we're not missing much at the moment. Atle Lie McGrath delivered a solid result. Once he's in the top 15, things are a lot easier. Alexis Pinturault also put in a great performance. That was a really good step forward, building on last season. And there is the young Tobias Kastlunger from South Tyrol, who with bib number 67 raced into the top-ten, which is an awesome achievement. I'm hugely pleased about that."
Wendy Holdener takes the lead in the Slalom World Cup
Wendy Holdener started the second run in second place. With a brilliant second run with the second-fastest time, the 29-year-old achieved her second slalom victory in a row - 47 hundredths of a second ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin. As a result, Holdener has taken the lead in this discipline in the World Cup with 325 points, tied with Shiffrin after four Slalom races this season. Also finishing in the top-ten were Anna Swenn-Larsson from Sweden in sixth place and Lena Dürr from Germany who was eighth.
Second podium finish this season for Sara Hector
In the Giant Slalom on Saturday in Sestriere, Sara Hector moved up to second place overall with the fastest time on the second run. The Swedish athlete was in sixth place after the first run. In the first Giant Slalom of the season in Killington, the 30-year-old also stood on the podium in third place. The Swiss athlete Lara Gut-Behrami finished in seventh place, having won the first race in this discipline in Killington. Ragnhild Mowinckel from Norway was ninth, Wendy Holdener tenth, Elisabeth Kappaurer from Austria 14th and Coralia Frasse Sombet from France finished in 15th place. Kappaurer started with bib number 46. Having raced to 28th place on the first run, the Austrian athlete skied the fourth-fastest time on the second run to reach 14th place. That sees Kappaurer bag World Cup points again for the first time in four years.
Atle Lie McGrath just missed podium finish
On Saturday Atle Lie McGrath finished fourth, missing third place by three hundredths of a second in the men's Giant Slalom in Val d’Isere. Following his second place in the Giant Slalom in Alta Badia in 2020, this is the second-best result for the 22-year-old Norwegian athlete in this discipline. Alexander Schmid from Germany finished in sixth place, having achieved the third-fastest time on the first run. Alexis Pinturault from France finished in eleventh place. In the Slalom on Sunday, the French athlete finished in fifth place in his home race. A sensational performance was served up by Tobias Kastlunger at this event. The Italian athlete started with bib number 67 and qualified for the second run in 26th place. He then skied the second-fastest time to reach tenth place and bag World Cup points for the first time. The 23-year-old was followed by Albert Popov from Bulgaria in eleventh place.
