The top three in the first World Cup slalom of the winter (from left): Katharina Liensberger, Mikaela Shiffrin, Lena Dürr
Image: Keystone
Mikaela Shiffrin won the slalom in Levi for the eighth time
Image: Keystone
Camille Rast impresses with 5th place
Image: Keystone
Mélanie Meillard proves her preference for the slopes in Levi once again
Image: Keystone
Wendy Holdener still has significant potential for improvement after her long break
Image: Keystone
Aline Danioth takes 40th place in her first World Cup race in 657 days
Image: Keystone
The top three in the first World Cup slalom of the winter (from left): Katharina Liensberger, Mikaela Shiffrin, Lena Dürr
Image: Keystone
Mikaela Shiffrin won the slalom in Levi for the eighth time
Image: Keystone
Camille Rast impresses with 5th place
Image: Keystone
Mélanie Meillard proves her preference for the slopes in Levi once again
Image: Keystone
Wendy Holdener still has significant potential for improvement after her long break
Image: Keystone
Aline Danioth takes 40th place in her first World Cup race in 657 days
Image: Keystone
Mikaela Shiffrin sets the pace again in the slalom. The American sets a clear best time in the first run in Levi, Finland. The best-ranked Swiss skier is Camille Rast in 7th place.
Rast lost 1.22 seconds to Shiffrin, half a second behind the Croatian Zrinka Ljutic in 3rd place. With her run, Rast showed that her form is also right at the start of the new season - a winter in which she is aiming for her long overdue first podium finish in the World Cup. As Swiss-Ski's second-best racer, Mélanie Meillard is in 10th place in the intermediate rankings, just ahead of Michelle Gisin.
Wendy Holdener, who missed almost all of last season due to a fracture in her left ankle, is in 13th place after her first run in a World Cup slalom for a year.
The second returnee in the Swiss team, Aline Danioth, was three and a half seconds slower than Shiffrin and will not be taking part in the decision. Danioth from Uri was competing in the World Cup for the first time after a long break. She fought her way back once again after suffering a cruciate ligament rupture in March last year, her sixth serious injury. Nicole Good was eliminated in the upper part of the course.
Shiffrin distanced her first pursuer, the German Lena Dürr, by six tenths of a second. In the absence of Slovakia's Petra Vlhova, who does not yet feel ready to compete following the cruciate ligament rupture she suffered in January, the American laid the foundations for her eighth victory in Levi, her 98th World Cup triumph in total, in convincing style.
SDA
