Alpine skiing: Ilka Štuhec ends a long victory in the World Cup after the fall of Sofia Goggie in the downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo
Ilka Štuhec scored first Alpine skiing World Cup win after more than four years in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Saturday (January 21).
Slovenia’s two-time world champion in downhill fell behind the leader in the World Cup Sofia Goggia on Friday, but the home favorite fell at the sight of the lead.
It was Štuhčeva’s tenth World Cup victory in her career, and she was visibly emotional in the driver’s seat after the top 15 retired.
Wore start number 30, Norway Kajsa Vickhoff Lie with Goggia’s compatriot’s second place return to form with a bang Elena Curtoni.
The 32-year-old Štuhec was thinking about retirement before this season, but told FIS of her joy that she decided to continue racing.
She said: “I kept going. I trusted my gut to keep fighting, to change the things I felt I had to. Now I’m having fun again and it’s really fun to win.”
Mikaela Shiffrin – quest for 83rd World Cup win to break Lindsey Vonn women’s record – she was seventh, and was in the top half ahead of Štuhčeva on the clock.
The American woman who increased the advantage before Peter Vlhova with a World Cup total of a whopping 485 points, she will have her chances of eclipsing Vonn in Sunday’s super-G.
With the victory, Štuhčeva reduced the gap to Goggio in the downhill World Cup standings to 108 points.
A pinch profit after Goggia failed to complete Cortina’s double double
Due to the strong wind, the course was considerably shortened from Friday, and the times were almost 30 seconds faster.
Goggia had to wait almost 10 minutes before she started her descent Nina Ortlieb suffered a nasty fall, with the Austrian eventually able to carefully ski down to the bottom.
The Italian star was doing well before falling out of shape on an aerial turn mid-downhill and hitting the platform in the very next corner.
The PyeongChang 2018 the downhill champion was able to pick herself up and ski off unaided, receiving a warm welcome from her enthusiastic fans.
Štuhec followed Goggia and built up a significant advantage in the upper part before that stopping the clock at 1:04.73who took over from Mowinckel.
Curtoni was next and wowed the home crowd as she skied the middle of the course better than anyone else.
She was behind Stuhecova by 0.34 seconds, but was ahead of Mowincklova by one hundredth of a second.
Gut-Behrami, wearing the starting number 20, finished well, equaling Mowinckel’s time and joining the Norwegian in third.
After a long absence due to injury, Vickhoff Lie provided an excellent ride and was higher than Stuhec on the upper half of the track.
She moved up to second with Mowinckle, despite being pushed off the podium, the first to happily celebrate with her teammate.
With the current Olympic downhill champion Corinne Suter absent after suffering bruising in a bad crash on Friday, Gut-Behrami was the best Swiss rider on the day with Priska Nufer just after five.
Results of the Downhill World Cup in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Saturday 21st January (Top 10):
1. Ilka Štuhec (SLO) 1:04.73
2. Kajsa Vickhoff Lie (NOR) +0.26
3. Elena Curtoni (ITA) +0.34
4= Ragnhild Mowinckel (NOR), Lara Gut-Behrami (SV) +0.35
6. Priska Nufer (ŠV) +0.37
7. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) +0.39
8. Stephanie Venier (AUT) +0.44
9. Mirjam Puchner (AUT) +0.50
10= Michelle Gisin (Switzerland), Breezy Johnson (USA) +0.64