'Nervous' Shiffrin equals women's World Cup victory record

Kranjska Gora (AFP) – Mikaela Shiffrin equalled Lindsey Vonn s women s record of 82 World Cup victories when she won the giant slalom at Kranjska Gora on Sunday.

The 27-year-old American produced two stunning runs to beat the Italian Federica Brignone by 0.77 seconds. The Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami was third, 0.97sec beind Shiffrin.

"I was a little nervous because of the record," Shiffrin told broadcaster Eurosport.

"I wanted to ski well and I did it. I can t believe it.

"It was pretty amazing conditions. I got reports from the coaches that everything is fully attackable and today I wanted to fight for it."

Shiffrin, who could only finish sixth in Saturday s first giant slalom, is now just four wins shy of matching the overall record of 86 wins held by the Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark, who dominated the men s slalom and giant slalom disciplines for a decade from 1975 before retiring in 1989.