(Levi) Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova dominated the first slalom of the women’s alpine skiing World Cup season by easily winning each of the two runs on Saturday, while Quebec’s Laurence St-Germain was excluded from the second run.
Vlhova clocked a cumulative time of one minute 50.59 seconds (1:50.59), beating German Lena Dürr by 1.41 seconds.
An Olympic champion in the discipline, Vlhova became the sixth skier in World Cup history to amass 20 career slalom victories.
American Mikaela Shiffrin, who ran with a bruised left knee caused by a fall in training last week, placed fourth in 1:52.29, 15 hundredths of a second behind Austrian Katharina Liensberger.
Twentieth at the end of the first round, Canadian Ali Nullmeyer achieved the third time in the second round (57.61) and her cumulative time of 1:53.56 allowed her to be ranked sixth.
This is her best World Cup performance since sixth place in the slalom in Courchevel/Méribel, France, on March 19, 2022.
For her part, St-Germain, who beat Shiffrin for the slalom world title last February, had to settle for a time of 57.36 seconds in the first run, which left her in 42nd place . The top 30 times qualified for the second round.
Her compatriot Justine Lamontagne was also eliminated after the initial round. She crossed the finish line in 59.17 seconds, for 57th place.
Canadian Amelia Smart competed in the second heat, after placing 24th in her first outing on the track. She finished the competition in 27th place, clocking 1:56.34.
Another slalom will be presented on the same track on Sunday.
