The Japan Times - Scheib storms to Kronplatz giant slalom victory as Brignone impresses in World Cup return

Austrian Scheib won her fourth giant slalom race of the season with a combined time of two minutes and 19.85 seconds in northern Italy, 0.37sec ahead of Camille Rast.

Sara Hector, who lead after Tuesday morning's first run, put in a poor second effort to finish third, 0.46sec off the pace while overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin missed out on a first giant slalom podium in two years.

Scheib has 560 points in the discipline standings after seven giant slalom races, 139 more than Rast who trails Shiffrin, who finished fourth, by 140 points in the main classification.

But it was Brignone, the giant slalom world champion, who drew the biggest cheers with her superb effort, nine months after suffering a double leg break which seriously damaged her Olympic hopes.

Brignone's top-10 finish delighted both the 35-year-old and the local fans who roared when she took a brief lead with a second run which was only 0.44sec slower than Scheib's.

She is set to miss the final two World Cup race weekends before the Milan-Cortina Games, in Spindleruv Mlyn and tragedy-hit Crans Montana, to train in Cortina d'Ampezzo where the women's Olympic alpine skiing events will be held.

Brignone's goal is to compete not only in the Olympic giant slalom, scheduled for February 15, but also in the downhill on February 8 and the super-G four days later.

S.Suzuki--JT