Slovakian skier Petra Vlhova took a big lead in the opening run of women’s World Cup slalom in tough race conditions on Tuesday.
Mikaela Shiffrin trailed by more than six-tenths of a second in second place upon her return to com-petition following a positive COVID-19 test and missing two races last week.
Vlhova opened the slalom in 55.99 seconds on the Crveni Spust course, where the soft snow sur-face and gusts whipping up eddies of leaves made for challenging conditions.
”I’m satisfied because I wanted to take advan-tage from the No. 1,” Vlhova said. ”I did it and now it’s going to be a big fight in the second.”
Shiffrin, who was only cleared to race on Mon-day, started seventh and last of the elite group. The American finished .64 seconds behind and was one of only three racers to finish within a second off Vlhova’s lead.
Vlhova won the last two editions of the tradi-tional first slalom race of the calendar year. The Slovakian has won 10 of the last 16 slaloms, and three of the four this season.—APP
