Sun Valley (United States) (AFP) – Alice Robinson’s bid for an historic alpine World Cup giant slalom crown took a massive hit Tuesday as she crashed out of the first leg at the World Cup finals, opening the door to rival Federica Brignone. Robinson came into the final race of the season with a 20-point lead over Brignone and a chance to become the first New Zealander to win a World Cup crystal globe.
However, after surviving an early wobble on the first run, Robinson lost her balance on a deep turn at the bottom of the course and couldn’t recover, becoming one of six skiers among the 28 who started that failed to finish the first leg. This left Brignone, who was the second-fastest in the first leg at 45-hundredths of a second behind Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami, poised to strike to add the giant slalom season title to the World Cup overall and downhill titles she secured on Saturday.
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The 34-year-old Italian needed to finish 13th or better to seize the giant slalom season crown. Brignone, skiing first, stormed through the upper reaches of the course before finding trouble on the lower section and having to fight to finish the run. Sweden’s Olympic champion Sara Hector was third after the first leg, 68-hundredths of a second back.
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