Rampant Vlhova snaps Shiffrin slalom streak at Zagreb

02:54, January 05, 2020

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  Frenchman Clement Noel wins alpine ski men's slalom race in Zagreb

  France'sClementNoelwearingtheSnowKingcrowncelebratesafterwinningthealpineskiWorldCupmen'sslalomraceinZagreb,Croatia,January5,2020./AFPPhoto。France'sClementNoeledgedSwitzerland'sRamonZenhaeusern,thefirst-runleader,by0.07secondstowinthealpineskiWorldCupmen'sslalomraceunderthelightsinZagreb,Croatia,onS

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  Leaving it late: Shiffrin wins GS after nearly missing start

  United States Mikaela Shiffrin competes in an alpine ski, womens World Cup giant slalom, in Lienz, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019. (Photo: AP)Mikaela Shiffrin wrapped up an eventful return from her 11-day break from World Cup racing on Saturday, dominating a giant slalom for her 63rd career victory and moving into outright second place on the women’s winners list.After nearly arriving too late for the opening run, Shiffrin posted the fastest time in both legs to win by a big margin of 1.36 seconds.Having misread the local start time of 10:15 a.m., the American three-time overall champion was preparing for a 10:30 start.Shiffrin had to interrupt her usual warmup routines to make it to the start gate in time but made no mistake once on the course.And she doubled her advantage in the second run.After finishing, Shiffrin briefly looked up to the large video wall displaying the times, then crouched down for a few seconds, briefly pumped her fist and lay down in the snow.“It was a big fight today. It’s the way I like to ski,” Shiffrin said. “I did the very, very best that I could do. And it was some of the best GS skiing I have ever done.”Marta Bassino of Italy, who won the GS in Killington last month, finished second, while Austria’s Katharina Liensberger finished 1.82 back in third to match her career best result.The victory moved Shiffrin into outright second place on the women’s winners list. Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Proell won 62 times in the 1970s and 80s.Lindsey Vonn holds the women’s record of 82 wins.Shiffrin opted out of the Val d’Isere races last weekend after finishing a disappointing 17th in a mid-week GS in another French resort, Courchevel.The events in Val d’Isere were then canceled because of bad weather.“It sounds pretty stupid to say I lost a lot of confidence after the last year,” said Shiffrin, referring to her record-breaking season with 17 World Cup wins.“I was so mad at myself for making some of the decisions about the schedule th...

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  Heilongjiang sweeps women's giant slalom podium at Chinese national winter games

  Skiers from northeastern Heilongjiang Province finished top three in the womens giant slalom at the Chinese national winter games in Chifeng, northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Saturday.Chinas Ni Yueming competes in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships womens giant slalom in St. Moritz, Switzerland, February 16, 2017. (File photo: CGTN)The athletes from the traditional Alpine skiing national powerhouse were Ni Yueming, with a combined time of two minutes 0.79 seconds; Zhu Tianhui, 0.46 seconds behind Ni; and Kong Fanying, who trailed the winner 1.01 seconds.Ni, a member of the national team, contributed her victory to effective training overseas. "I connected well between steep slope and gentle slope today, and I managed to allow fewer errors," said Ni. "In the last few years, I have been taking trainings abroad, preparing for the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and these trainings turned out to be fruitful."In the mens competition, Akcholi Murat awarded Jilin the first national gold medal from Alpine skiing since 1979, timing an overall 2:04.70.Cong Liang from PLA was second, 0.40 seconds adrift. His teammate Gao Qun was further 0.55 seconds behind.Murat is also a beneficiary from national team experience. "On this event, confidence plays a great part. I have been trained by foreign coaches in the national team, taking in new ideas and new skills," he said, adding "The training overseas helped me improve a lot both physically and technically."