Shiffrin leads Hafjell slalom, nears overall World Cup

The first run of the women's slalom in Hafjell ended with almost the same outcome as the previous race in the discipline: Mikaela Shiffrin once again confidently led the standings. The American was 1.10 seconds ahead of Wendy Holdener. Paula Moltzan is third, 1.12 seconds back, while Emma Aicher, who continues her fight for the overall World Cup, is fourth - +1.38.

Women's Alpine Skiing World Cup. Lillehammer, Norway. Slalom. First-run results.

The slalom World Cup winner was decided long before the finals: Mikaela Shiffrin won the globe in this discipline for the ninth time. However, the season's main question remains open. If Mikaela wins today and Emma Aicher has a poor result, the American could also clinch the overall World Cup early.

Before the race, Shiffrin led Aicher by 45 points. A race win is worth 80 points, second place 60, third 50 and fourth 45. Therefore, if Mikaela wins and Emma finishes no lower than fourth, the suspense will remain, at least formally. If the American wins and the German finishes fifth, Aicher will receive 45 points, and Shiffrin's lead before tomorrow's giant slalom will be exactly 100 points.

The first slalom run was very long: the Alpine skiers needed more than 1 minute and 8 tenths to reach the finish. We now move to coverage of the second run in Hafjell.

15:30. Zrinka Ljutic completes the second run without serious problems. The course setting is noticeably easier here, and the course itself is faster. After the first run, the Croatian was more than 4 seconds behind Shiffrin. Her total time is 2:11.84, with Ljutic completing the second run almost 12 seconds faster than the first.

15:31. Lara Della Mea starts her run with a 65-hundredth advantage and immediately doubles it. Before the final section, the Italian is already 1.38 seconds ahead. At the finish, she becomes the new leader, beating Ljutic by 92 hundredths.

15:32. Laurence St-Germain makes a mistake near the top of the course and loses a lot of time. The Canadian then gradually picks up speed: at the third split, she is 70 hundredths back. St-Germain finishes second, 73 hundredths behind Della Mea.

15:34. Katharina Huber was only 20th after the first run. The Austrian starts the second run with a 29-hundredth advantage but loses it almost immediately. Huber finds a good rhythm on the next section, giving up only 6 hundredths, then makes up time near the bottom and takes the lead. Her advantage over the Italian is 5 hundredths.

The course is becoming softer all the time: ski tracks and ruts are already visible in the snow.

15:36. Marie Lamure of France starts her run confidently and builds her lead. First she gains 24 hundredths, then 11. The Frenchwoman negotiates the runout without problems and finishes in the lead, 38 hundredths ahead of Huber.

The sun has come out, so there are no more problems with visibility or rain.

15:38. Cornelia Oehlund starts with a 39-hundredth advantage and immediately stakes her claim to the best time. At the third split, the Swede is already 74 hundredths ahead of Lamure, and she brings 70 hundredths to the finish - a healthy lead.

15:39. Eliane Christen begins the second run with virtually no advantage: on the first course, the Swiss won by just 2 hundredths over Oehlund. During the run, she is first 24 hundredths back, then 54. Christen reaches the finish 69 hundredths behind and is currently second.

15:40. Melanie Meillard is on the course. The Swiss starts with a 20-hundredth advantage and remains in the green at the top, where she gains 16 hundredths, then another 9. But she needs to maintain that high pace all the way to the finish. Meillard leads for a while and is 21 hundredths ahead of Oehlund, but loses slightly to the Swede at the bottom: she misses the fastest intermediate time by 5 hundredths. Melanie is second.

15:42. Anna Trocker, the junior world champion, was 15th after the first run. The 17-year-old Italian loses her advantage near the top but then starts making up ground. After the second section, she is already 37 hundredths ahead of Oehlund, and before the final sector her advantage reaches 45 hundredths. Despite her mistakes, Trocker brings 23 hundredths to the Swede and takes the lead.

The Italian will score World Cup points today: at the finals, only athletes who finish in the top 15 receive points.

15:44. Jenifera Germane of Latvia starts almost without a lead, having beaten Trocker by just 2 hundredths. At the second split, the Latvian is 39 hundredths behind, and then her deficit grows to 67. In the lower part of the course, Germane finishes only fourth, 58 hundredths behind the young Italian.

15:46. Hanna Aronsson Elfman starts the second run with a 23-hundredth advantage. The Swede quickly moves into the red, although at first she loses only a few hundredths. She then slows down and the deficit grows. Before the runout, Hanna is almost a second behind. She manages to make up a little ground at the bottom, but it is enough only for fourth place: +0.45.

15:48. Caitlin McFarlane of France is challenging for the lead, but starts losing time halfway down the course. Her deficit is 19 hundredths, then drops to 8. In the lower section, the Frenchwoman nevertheless overtakes junior Trocker and brings 28 hundredths to the Italian.

15:49. Lena Duerr finished the first run in 11th. In the second, the German Alpine skier starts with an 18-hundredth advantage, but is already a few hundredths behind at the second split, then gets bogged down in the snow. Her deficit grows to 77 hundredths. She cannot make it up in the runout: Duerr is only seventh, +1.15.

15:51. Lara Colturi comes out of the start. Her coach and father set the second course for her. The Albanian representative is on the fastest time in the upper section, but then also starts losing significant time. At the third split, her deficit reaches 72 hundredths. At the finish, Colturi is seventh, 90 hundredths behind.

15:52. Camille Rast was ninth after the first run, clearly not where she would have wanted to finish. In the second run, the Swiss starts with a 41-hundredth advantage and remains in the green at the top. She then begins losing time to the leaders, and before the final section she is already half a second behind. Rast finishes fifth at the bottom, +0.71.

Caitlin McFarlane now leads the standings. Anna Trocker has climbed five places and is 28 hundredths behind the Frenchwoman. For the Italian, this already means the first top-10 finish of her career. Cornelia Oehlund is third, +0.51.

15:56. Marion Chevrier starts with a 64-hundredth advantage. The Frenchwoman is challenging for the fastest second-run time: first she gains 32 hundredths, then 27. However, she makes a small mistake lower down and finishes third, 47 hundredths behind. Chevrier is overtaken not only by McFarlane but also by Trocker. Thus, the fastest time on the second course still belongs to the Italian junior.

15:58. Katharina Truppe of Austria starts with a huge advantage for this stage, 82 hundredths. She continues to extend her lead and stays in the green for a long time. Before the runout, Truppe is 67 hundredths ahead of McFarlane, and she is especially fast through the final section. The Austrian becomes the new leader, bringing 92 hundredths to the Frenchwoman. Truppe now has the fastest second-run time.

15:59. Sara Hector was sixth after the first run. At the top, the Swede stays in the green, but her advantage gradually melts away. Hector starts losing time, although for now it is only a few hundredths. In the key third sector, she moves into second place and finishes there as well: +0.73. Five athletes remain to start.

16:00. Another Swede, Anna Swenn-Larsson, appears in the starting gate. She has a 40-hundredth advantage over Truppe. However, the Swede leads only in the upper part of the course: her advantage quickly disappears, and then Swenn-Larsson is 12 hundredths behind and moves into provisional second place. At the bottom, she finishes second, 61 hundredths behind the Austrian, but drops Hector to third. The results are getting closer and closer.

16:03. A crucial moment arrives for Emma Aicher. The German was fourth after the first run and starts the second with a 43-hundredth advantage. At the top, Aicher not only preserves her lead but extends it, first to 58 hundredths and then to 79. Emma continues to lead and is half a second ahead of Truppe before the final section.

Although the course has already broken up in places, Aicher reaches the finish confidently and brings 31 hundredths to the Austrian. The German becomes the new leader and guarantees herself at least fourth place in today's race. This means that the overall World Cup winner will be decided only tomorrow, in the giant slalom.

16:06. Paula Moltzan comes onto the course. Her advantage quickly melts away: by the second split, the American is 17 hundredths behind, then 26. Moltzan reaches the finish in third, 47 hundredths behind. It looks as though she will not remain on the podium. Emma Aicher is now certain to finish in the top three, and only her exact place remains to be decided.

16:07. Wendy Holdener starts the second run with a 28-hundredth advantage. The Swiss maintains the lead at the top, where she gains 27 hundredths, then continues at a good pace. Before the final section, she is 19 hundredths ahead of Aicher. At the finish, Holdener overtakes the German, but her advantage is only 4 hundredths of a second.

Thus, Wendy takes 20 points from Emma in the overall World Cup battle. But the winner of the main trophy will be decided tomorrow. Holdener is back on the podium and can now finish either second or, though that looks difficult to imagine, first.

16:09. Mikaela Shiffrin is the last to start. After the first run, the American had a huge 1.10-second advantage. She only needed to ski the course at her own pace. In the first sections, Shiffrin preserves a 90-hundredth lead, then continues to attack and extends it further.

The world's most decorated Alpine skier reaches the finish with a 1.32-second advantage. Shiffrin wins another slalom, her ninth victory of the season.

The order in the final slalom standings did not change: Camille Rast finishes the season second, and Wendy Holdener third. Mikaela Shiffrin had secured the slalom World Cup long before the finals, for the ninth time in her career.

Emma Aicher did everything she could and finished third in the final slalom. Wendy Holdener reached the podium for the second race in a row, finishing this slalom in second place.

Women's Alpine Skiing World Cup. Lillehammer, Norway. Slalom. Final result after two runs.

• I - place;
• II - bib number;
• III - first and last name;
• IV - country;
• V - first-run result;
• VI - first-run place;
• VII - second-run result;
• VIII - second-run place;
• IX - progress;
• X - result after two runs;
• XI - difference from the leader.

The overall World Cup battle continues, although Mikaela's lead over Emma remains fairly large at 85 points. The season's final race, the giant slalom, will take place tomorrow in Hafjell.

Photo: footage from SRF Sport.

15:19 24.03.26