MERIBEL, France (Reuters) – Mikaela Shiffrin put herself in pole position to reclaim her slalom title at the world championships with a rock-solid run to lead after the first leg on Saturday.
The American, who who won Thursday’s giant slalom to claim a seventh world championship gold, made no mistakes as she clocked 52.54 seconds to top the time sheet.
Swiss Wendy Holdener was second, 0.19 seconds off Shiffrin’s pace while Canada’s Laurence St-Germain was third quickest just over half a second back.
The dominant Shiffrin, 27, was unbeatable in world championships slalom as she won in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 but had to settle for bronze in Cortina in 2021.
Her long-awaited giant slalom victory took her world championships medal haul to 13, level with Sweden’s Anja Paerson with only Christl Cranz (15) having won more.
Austria’s Katharina Liensberger, who took slalom gold in 2021, could only manage 14th in the first run.
The top 30 from the first run start the medal run with Shiffrin the last to go, meaning that unlike in her first run she could have to contend with rutted conditions.
“The tricky thing is if there are tracks and they start to freeze, but we’ll see. I think it will be the same.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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