
Two weeks after her first win of the season in Gudauri, Fanny Smith doubles up. In Craigleith, the Vaud native won with aplomb and put the World Cup leader under pressure.
Smith quickly took the lead in all runs and played to her strengths on the short and winding course. In the final, too, it quickly became clear that there would be no way around the 32-year-old Swiss. Smith is in excellent form a week before the World Championships in St. Moritz and has always finished on the podium in the last four races. In the overall World Cup, she is only 24 points behind the leader India Sherret.
Smith was also able to close the gap on Sherret thanks to her compatriot Talina Gantenbein. She beat the local Canadian in the semi-final in a photo finish. In the final, Gantenbein missed out on her eighth World Cup podium place behind France's Marielle Berger Sabbatel and Italy's Jole Galli.
There was also a Swiss podium finish in the men's event: qualification winner Alex Fiva came second behind Reece Howden and ahead of Kevin Drury, both from Canada. It was Fiva's fourth podium finish of the season. The opening victory in Val Thorens was followed by three 2nd places. Romain Détraz reached the small final and finished seventh. The other four Swiss athletes were eliminated beforehand.
There was a lengthy interruption when Simone Deromedis had an unfortunate fall in the quarter-finals. Further information on the injury to the Italian world champion and World Cup leader was not initially available.