CRANS MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) – Italian skier Marta Bassino used all of her technical skills to dominate the women's World Cup downhill on Saturday, taking her first win in the sport's fastest event.
Bassino is a giant slalom specialist. Won the super-G world title last yeargained more time than any other rider on the winding opening and final sections of the Mont Lachot course, finishing 0.54 seconds ahead of teammate Federica Brignone.
Lara Gut-Behrami finished 1.11 behind in third place, extending the Swiss star's lead in the overall standings to 165 points over the absent Mikaela Shiffrin.
Shiffrin is Nursing left knee injury And he won't be back on the circuit sooner than the second weekend in March for the GS and slalom in Sweden.
Bosnian skier Elvedina Muzafelija, wearing number 28, got off to a slow start, but finished 4th, 1.22 seconds behind Bassino, and cracked the top 10 for the first time in her career.
“I'm really, really happy. It's my first downhill win, so it's amazing,” Bassino said. “I think I had a great run. I did everything I saw and analyzed on video.”
Bassino has finished on the podium just once in 37 World Cup downhill starts, finishing runner-up in a race in Bulgaria four years ago.
she was already impressed Friday’s shortened downhill on the same coursewhen he started 21st and finished 5th with a clean run.
Racing in spring-like temperatures on Saturday, Bassino got off to the fastest start and set the best times at the first two checkpoints. She could not quite match the downhill specialists while skiing the straighter middle sections, but once again showed unparalleled pace in the lower part of the course.
“I think I was able to make the right turns in the right way, and I tried to go fast and be confident in the snow,” Bassino said, adding that starting early with number 3 was an advantage.
“I think it helped a little bit because the snow slowed down a little bit,” she said.
Bassino became the sixth winner in six downhill races this season. There are also two final races of the season scheduled over two weeks in Norway and Austria.
A day after winning Friday's race, Gut-Behrami added another 60 points to her season record, putting her 19 points ahead of downhill leader Sofia Goggia.
Goggia has won the downhill title for the past three years, but Italians had to end the season prematurely After breaking two bones in his right foot in a fall during training 12 days ago.
Gut-Behrami also tops the super-G and giant slalom rankings, which is strikingly similar to the men's World Cup, where Swiss standout Marco Odermatt leads four different positions.
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AP Ski Details: https://apnews.com/hub/Alpine Skiing
