Alpine skiing: Fenninger wins world giant slalom title
Anna Fenninger clinched her third world title and second in Beaver Creek on Thursday.
BEAVER CREEK (AFP) - Austria s Anna Fenninger overcame a mid-race slip-up to clinch her third world title and second in Beaver Creek on Thursday with a triumph in the women s Alpine World Championships giant slalom.
The reigning overall World Cup champion clocked the top aggregate time over two runs of 2min 19.16sec, a huge 1.40sec ahead of German silver medallist Viktoria Rebensburg, with bronze medal winner Jessica Lindell-Vikarby of Sweden a further 0.09sec adrift.
Fenninger blitzed the field in the opening leg of the giant slalom and continued her brilliant form in the afternoon session. She had a 0.81 second lead over teammate Michaela Kirchgasser after the first run.
However, Fenninger almost didn t make it down the Birds of Prey course on the second leg as she appeared to completely lose control of her skis on a turn.
She somehow managed to fight through it and stay on her feet for the win ahead of Rebensburg -- who burst onto the scene with a giant slalom triumph at the 2010 Vancouver Games -- and Lindell-Vikarby, a giant slalom and super-G specialist who won a World Cup giant slalom in Beaver Creek in 2013.
Slovenian Tina Maze, who won gold in the giant slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and was seeking a third gold of these championships, placed fifth with a time of 2:20.90.
Crowd favourite Mikaela Shiffrin, who grew up in the Beaver Creek-Vail area, placed eighth with a time of 2:21.63.
Her American teammate Lindsey Vonn, who has struggled with the icy snow and a bad knee at the biennial championships, finished well back, more than three seconds behind Fenninger.
