Austrian Marcel Hirscher claimed a third crystal globe of the season yesterday, his fourth-placed slalom finish leaving him atop the discipline’s standings. The 28-year-old won a record sixth consecutive overall title and the giant slalom crystal globe when he won that event on Saturday. Yesterday’s slalom was won by Hirscher’s teammate Michael Matt, who clocked a combined time of 1min 48.26sec for his maiden World Cup victory, and just his second podium, at the age of 23. Italian Stefano Gross was second, 0.30sec adrift, with Germany’s Felix Neureuther rounding out the podium (+0.46) in the Slovenian resort of Kranjska Gora. Hirscher’s sixth overall globe bettered the record of Luxembourg’s Marc Girardelli (1985, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993) and equalled the ladies’ mark set by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell (1971-1975, 1979).
It followed his success at last month’s St Moritz world championships where Hirscher won both the slalom and giant slalom.
Italy’s Sofia Goggia won her second World Cup event in two days with victory in the Super-G yesterday. Twenty four hours after securing her first-ever World Cup win at Jeongseon, Goggia edged out American star Lindsey Vonn and Slovenia’s Ilka Stuhec in a carbon copy of Saturday’s downhill podium at Jeongseon, venue for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
Goggia clocked 1min 20.35sec before Vonn finished just four hundredths outside that time, with Stuhec taking third with a run of 1:20.86. “Standing on the podium with these two means a lot to me,” said Goggia after twice ending a hoodoo of nine podiums this season without a maiden victory. “I’m pretty happy with my Skiing today and yesterday. I really like the course and I tried to push as hard as I could.” Vonn, still feeling her way back after nearly a year out with knee and arm injuries, has now failed to win a World Cup Super-G since January 2016.