Berliner Tageblatt - Brignone claims Sestriere giant slalom double after Shiffrin flops out

Giant slalom world champion Brignone surged to a combined time of two minutes and 8.81 seconds, 0.77 seconds ahead of Lara Gut-Behrami after another top performance in northern Italy.

The 34-year-old now has 34 World Cup wins and is 190 points ahead of reigning overall and discipline champion Gut-Behrami in the general classification.

Alice Robinson conceded her lead from the first run for the second day in a row and finished third, 0.79sec off the pace, her time knocking brave Sofia Goggia off the podium at the last.

Italian star Goggia had finished 17th in the morning's opening run but shot down the piste to record the second fastest time of the second run, behind Brignone, to eventually claim fourth as the later skiers had to deal with increasingly poor visibility.

Robinson's third place means she has a 40-point advantage over Brignone in the giant slalom standings.

Mikaela Shiffrin will have to wait for her 100th alpine skiing World Cup win after finishing 33rd in the first run and not qualifying for the afternoon's decisive session.

American star Shiffrin missed out after another disappointing run which left her trailing early leader Robinson by 2.5 seconds.

The 29-year-old admitted after two difficult runs on Friday that her goal for the rest of the season is simply to collect points rather than go for wins.

And she was tentative again on Saturday morning as she continues her comeback from an abdominal puncture wound suffered at Killington in November that required surgery.

Shiffrin will have another chance to make her mark in Sestriere on Sunday when the resort hosts a slalom, her specialist event.

J.Fankhauser--BTB