(Reuters) – Italy’s Federica Brignone completed a women’s World Cup giant slalom double in Sestriere on Saturday as U.S. ski great Mikaela Shiffrin failed to make the cut in the discipline for the first time since 2012.
World champion Brignone, who also won on Friday, returned to the top of the podium in the Italian resort with a blistering second run from fourth place.
It was the 34th World Cup win of her career and 16th in giant.
Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami finished second, 0.77 behind, with New Zealand’s Alice Robinson third.
“I’m surprised. The second run, I felt the crowd all over the slope cheering for me. It was an incredible feeling,” said Brignone.
Shiffrin was 33rd of the 64-strong field and a hefty 2.5 seconds off the pace after the first run, with only the top 30 going again.
The American, still chasing a record-extending 100th World Cup win, had said on Friday that fighting for points and staying in the top 30 in giant slalom was the goal for the rest of the season.
The win was Brignone’s seventh of the season, a career best haul for the 34-year-old, and extended her lead over Gut-Behrami in the overall standings to 190 points. She now stands on 999 points in the race for the big crystal globe.
Robinson stayed top of the giant slalom standings, 40 points clear of Brignone.
“I just wanted to push and maybe that’s why I just didn’t find the limit on the top, it was just too much and then I made that mistake and lost a lot of time,” said Robinson, who led after the first run.
“At the bottom I was just a bit out of gas…I was like really exhausted so I’m glad to have a few days off now and recharge a bit.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ed Osmond)
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